Anheuser-Busch InBev has countered reports this week that its Asia Pacific division is set to cut “thousands” of jobs in the region.
A Bloomberg report claimed that Budweiser Brewing Co APAC was looking to cut operational costs by about 15% this year, including via an unspecified number of layoffs, quoting people close to the matter. This was reportedly on top of a 16% reduction in the unit’s workforce of around 25,000 employees last year.
“The news report about thousands of job cuts planned for Asia in 2025 is not true,” an AB InBev spokesperson told Global Drinks Intel today (13 March). “We will continue our long-term investment in China.”
The report comes shortly after AB InBev posted another challenging quarter in its ‘Asia Pacific’ reporting region, which saw sales decline by 10.9% in the three months to the end of December.
The region was the only major blemish in an otherwise positive set of results for the brewer’s Q4, as sales grew 3.4% to US$14.84bn. For the full year, the top line increased 2.7% to $59.77bn.
Last month, AB InBev appointed Yanjun Cheng as CEO for Asia Pacific. Cheng is set to replace Jan Craps at the start of next month as the latter prepares to leave the group “to pursue other opportunities”.
