Hard, but...: Nestle to cut 16,000 jobs globally as new CEO pushes major cost-saving plan

Nestle layoff news: Swiss food giant Nestle has announced plans to cut 16,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years as part of a major restructuring and cost-saving drive under its new CEO, Philipp Navratil.

“The world is changing, and Nestle needs to change faster,” Navratil said in a statement, calling the job reductions “hard but necessary decisions.”

Following the announcement, Nestle’s shares jumped more than 8% in morning trading, helping make the Zurich stock exchange the best-performing market in Europe on Thursday.

The layoffs will affect about 6% of Nestle’s global workforce, including 12,000 white-collar jobs. The company expects the move to save 1 billion Swiss francs, double its earlier target. An additional 4,000 job cuts in production and supply chain are already in progress.

Nestle also increased its overall savings goal to 3 billion Swiss francs by 2027, up from 2.5 billion.

The announcement came as Nestle reported a 1.9% drop in sales to 65.9 billion Swiss francs ($83 billion) for the first nine months of 2025. However, organic sales grew 3.3%, driven by higher prices and strong performance in coffee and confectionery segments, including brands like Nespresso, KitKat, and Maggi.

Despite recent challenges — including leadership changes and a bottled water scandal in France,  analysts believe Navratil’s reforms could help restore stability and growth. “We must do more and move faster to accelerate our growth momentum,” Navratil said, emphasising that results are beginning to improve.