InBev restructure could lead to more job losses

InBev is restructuring its marketing department for the second time in a year, as part of a global reorganisation of sales and marketing teams in all the brewer’s local operating units.

A statement says that the proposed new structure is likely to result in “new job roles and responsibilities being introduced for a large proportion of the marketing team, including the creation of additional positions reporting directly to marketing director, Devin Kelly”.

Richard Evans (pictured), president of InBev UK & Ireland, says that while there may be job losses in some areas, these “will be counter-balanced by increases in others where we need to strengthen our organisation”.

The company will not comment further until the end of the official consultation period at the end of November. Currently, InBev UK & Ireland employs 93 marketers. Last year’s reshuffle, prompted by the merger of the UK and Irish businesses, and a raft of new product launches, saw 18 redundancies in the UK marketing team (MW November 17).

A number of senior marketers left the company following the August 2005 merger between Belgian brewer Interbrew and Brazilian company AmBev, which created InBev. Phil Rumbol, who was appointed as marketing director for the UK and Ireland in last year’s restructure, quit in January this year to take up the role of marketing director at Cadbury UK.

Last December, Stewart Gilliland, InBev president for western Europe, quit without a job to go to but joined Müller Dairy UK as chief executive in June (MW June 1).

In August, former UK marketing director Evans returned from InBev headquarters in Belgium where he had been global vice-president, brands to take up his current role.