Nestlé has announced the layoff of 16,000 employees worldwide, and it will fall especially on so-called “white collar” jobs. Among the reasons that the company argues through of a statement one stands out: “We are evolving and will simplify our organization and automate our processes.”
The decision has generated uncertainty both globally and in Spain, where its Spanish subsidiary has more than 4,000 employees and several factories. However, the most surprising thing is that, for the first time, it is a food company and not technological who makes a decision of this nature: cut jobs to flatten the organization and automate office roles.
Change to a more aggressive dome. Nestlé has taken a drastic turn in its internal policy by announcing the elimination of 16,000 positions of work. That represents about 6% of its total global workforce. This decision has surprised the markets, since it occurs just after having presented results that show growth in its income and sales throughout 2025.
Shortly after, its new CEO Philipp Navratil explained on your LinkedIn profile the company’s determined commitment to automate and digitize its processes under a cost reduction plan driven by the new direction of the company. In fact, the previous board already had an adjustment plan in place in which 541.4 million euros were going to be saved. With the new management leadership, the savings objective has doubled to 1,082.8 million euros by 2027.
The layoffs are no longer due to economic problems. When a company announced layoffs, they were usually associated with a bad economic situation. However, as we have seen in different technology companies such as Amazon, Google or Microsoft, layoffs and finances are already They are not necessarily related.
In the case of Nestlé, the company recorded organic sales growth of 3.3% in the first nine months of 2025, consolidating its figures in different global markets. As Navratil explained, the main argument for the layoffs is the company optimization to prepare it for a future competitive scenario and, to this end, it was going to focus on simplifying the organization and automating processes (with AI?) when appropriate. The same argument that big technology They have been using it for months in the context of the race for AI.
Distribution of layoffs and their impact. As confirmed by Nestlé, the layoffs will mainly affect “white collar” workers and around 12,000 employees will be in the office and administrative functions, while around 4,000 more layoffs will be distributed between production and supply chain departments.
The company has not detailed the exact geographical distribution of the layoffs, which maintains uncertainty in key markets such as Spain, where staff and unions have shown concern about the possibility of factories closing or production being reduced in certain cities. Nestlé employs around 4,000 employees in Spain in 10 production centers in five autonomous communities: Cantabria, Asturias, Extremadura, Galicia and Catalonia.
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Image | Nestle
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