LISTEN: Brewing Giant to Slash Thousands of Jobs Amid Sluggish Sales, Tech Push

The world’s second-largest brewer says it plans to combat a sluggish beer market by using technology to make its operations more efficient — and, in turn, slash thousands of jobs.Heineken, which announced its latest financial results Wednesday, said that it expects to cut between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs over the next two years — amounting to up to 7% of the Dutch brewer’s global workforce.Company officials indicated that some of the cuts would stem from previously announced cost-cutting efforts in its main office, regional operations and supply chain, while others, Reuters reported, would focus on Europe and “non-priority markets” that have lower growth prospects for the company.The company’s top executive told CNBC that Heineken aims to achieve up to $600 million in annual savings, and that “technology digitization in general, and AI specifically,” would be an important component of those efforts.Heineken and other leading brewers have faced growing challenges to demand on a number of fronts in recent years, from the rise of other beverage categories to increasing health concerns about alcohol to, of late, tightened consumer spending.Heineken indicated that beer volumes were down 2.4% last year, although its adjusted operating profit rose by a better-than-expected 4.4%. The company expects profit growth of between 2% and 6% this year.The announcement also comes as Heineken seeks a new chief executive: Dolf van den Brink announced unexpectedly last month that he would step down after nearly six years at the helm.