Bacardi lays off 15% of North American staff

Bacardi has begun the process of firing around 80 of its 600 employees in North America, maintaining that “it is business as usual” at the company.

Bacardi has said that at most 80 people of the 600-strong workforce will be made redundant (Photo: Bacardi)

Citing a need to “meet the demands of an ever-changing global marketplace”, in a statement the company said that they “regularly adjust staffing – expand or retract – and business structure to best support business needs.”

The majority of cuts are being made in its sales and field marketing divisions, as well as limited cuts in IT, communications, marketing and finance, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The Bermuda-based spirits company – the fourth largest in the world and the largest family-owned producer – is currently going through a phase of cost reduction. It follows the appointment of CEO Mike Dolan in January, after he filled the role as interim for eight months.

Bacardi also recently replaced its regional president for North America. Following the resignation of Robert Furniss-Roe from the role in August to pursue “other opportunities”, Peter Carr, formerly of Glazer’s Distributors and Diageo, took the helm in September. The company’s CMO for North America, Juan Rovira, also stood down in February this year.

Bacardi’s cost-cutting drive mirrors similar moves by rivals Diageo and Pernod Ricard, as all three companies suffer from falling sales, especially in white spirits.

Diageo announced it was “de-layering” its business in August last year, led by undisclosed numbers of redundancies, while in the same month Pernod announced the beginning of Project Allegro, which involves 900 job-losses over three years.