Australia: Asahi confirms redundancies at Carlton & United Breweries

Expected job losses following the merger of Asahi Beverages and Carlton & United Breweries have been confirmed, the Brews News reported on July 14.

Around 150 roles were made redundant following the merger, which has seen a number of major moves at all levels of the combined businesses.

At the end of last year, Peter Margin stepped down as chair of Asahi Holdings Australia.

Others have moved onto pastures new, such as John Phinney, who left Pirate Life when his role was made redundant following the merger and has now taken up the CEO role at Newstead Brewing in Brisbane.

Julian Sheezel, group general manager of corporate affairs at Asahi Beverages Oceania confirmed the cuts.

“With any type of major business integration there are usually job losses of around 5-10% due to duplication in roles,” Sheezel said.

“We’ve been able to keep our job losses to under 5%, with no award manufacturing job losses from the integration.

“We minimised job losses because of our new investments in growing the business, including significant capital investments in manufacturing.”

The A$16 billion deal which saw Asahi acquire Carlton & United Breweries from AB InBev was completed in June 2020.

As part of the deal the ACCC, which had previously said the acquisition would see the Australian beer market lose a ‘significant competitor’, forced Asahi to sell off brands including Stella Artois and Becks to Heineken.

14 July, 2021