Diageo cuts nearly 2,000 jobs to hit its $1bn target
The Guinness and Johnnie Walker owner shed more than 6% of its workforce in the year to June as chief executive Dave Lewis pushes through a three-year cost overhaul.
Diageo has cut nearly 2,000 jobs over the past year, trimming its global workforce by more than 6% as part of a $1bn cost-cutting drive at the world's largest spirits company.
The Guinness and Johnnie Walker owner employed an average of 27,938 full-time staff in the year to 30 June 2026, down from 29,860 the year before, according to its latest annual report. The company booked a $908m exceptional charge tied to its restructuring programmes for the year.
The scale of Diageo's job cuts
The $1bn savings plan lands on payroll first and on shelves later, if at all.
Chief executive Dave Lewis, who took over in January 2026, has pledged to strip $1bn in costs from the business over three years. Diageo said around 90% of the current phase of restructuring was completed by 1 September 2026, under a programme first launched in May 2025 and expanded since.
"A restructuring programme of this size obviously has very significant impacts on Diageo colleagues, and I'd like to put on the record my deep appreciation for the way that Diageo colleagues have engaged with this changed programme, most of which has been communicated throughout the business a month or so ago," Lewis said.
Net sales fell 2% to $19.6bn for the year. North America, Diageo's largest market, declined 8.4%, and the region has been singled out as the priority for a turnaround built around ready-to-drink cocktails and the Guinness brand.
A reshuffled leadership team
The cuts have come alongside a wider management shake-up. Chief human resources officer Louise Prashad, Africa president Hina Nagarajan and North America president Sally Grimes have all left the company this year.
In their place, John O'Keeffe became North America CEO in April, Sujay Wasan was named president of the Asia Pacific region, and Dayalan Nayager now runs a combined Europe, Middle East and Africa division. The restructuring is meant to flatten Diageo's management layers, not just shrink headcount.
Diageo's next trading update, due early next year, will show whether the $1bn in promised savings are showing up in the numbers, or only in the headcount.
Diageo has not disclosed a country-by-country breakdown of where the cuts fell. A small Scottish distillery's own insolvency filing this week is a reminder that the pressure on the drinks trade runs from the boardroom down to single-site producers.
