It’s not just brands of beer that Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller have had to discard in order to make their $107 billion merger dreams a reality: it could also cost thousands of people their jobs.
AB InBev warned Friday that the ongoing beer merger will likely lead to thousands of job cuts in coming years, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing newly filed merger documents [PDF].
In all, the company expects to cut about 3% of its soon-to-be-combined total workforce — with one source estimating that means about 5,500 positions — once the two beverage behemoths combine.
However, AB InBev says that the cuts will be “implemented gradually, in phases, over a three-year period following” the completion of the merger.
AB InBev currently employs about 150,000 people, while SABMiller’s workforce is composed of some 70,000 employees.
The company notes that it will maintain AB InBev’s Leuven, Belgium headquarters and its Global Functional Management Office in New York. That means some cuts are likely to be seen at SABMiller’s Woking, England headquarters.
Additionally, an SABMiller office in London will close within 12 months of the completed merger, while other offices in Miami, Hong Kong, and Beijing will be relocated.
“AB InBev will work to mitigate the impact of this by making alternative roles available in integration and business continuity teams that will remain at the SABMiller” headquarters “with some of these roles being filled by current AB InBev employees,” the company said in the filing.
AB InBev Warns of Thousands of Merger-Related Job Losses [The Wall Street Journal]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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