Just over 300 employees in Diageo’s North America division are set to lose their jobs as part of the drinks major’s global restructuring programme, it has emerged.
According to a New York Department of Labor Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice, 305 permanent jobs will be affected at the company’s headquarters in New York. This figure represents just over a third (36.35%) of the site’s 839 employees, according to the notice.
The layoffs are scheduled to begin on 30 September and run until 30 September 2027.
When approached for comment, a Diageo spokesperson told Global Drinks Intel: “As we shared at the start of August, we have been redesigning our operating framework to deliver a more competitive Diageo. We understand that this is a difficult time for colleagues, and we remain committed to supporting everyone through these changes.”
The US news follows the revelation last month that Diageo’s total workforce was cut by approaching 2,000 in the year to 30 June 2026 – which ended six months after Dave Lewis took up the CEO post. Lewis laid out details of a “significant” operating framework and supply-chain restructure at the company’s Capital Markets Day on 6 August.
Redundancy rumours have been swirling since the former Tesco CEO took over the top job, but Lewis was coy about revealing specifics when asked by journalists at Capital Markets Day. “I don’t want to talk about a number,” he said. “Whilst … the impacts are big, nobody’s saying to me this is the wrong thing to do.”
In the week prior, a Scottish trade union claimed Diageo had placed 172 scotch distillery staff at risk of redundancy, with 38 jobs set to be cut as part of the restructuring programme. GMB Scotland claimed Diageo had been “steam-rolling” through job cuts.
