FDBusiness.com

Following a challenging 2011, Carlsberg plans to reduce the number of positions in its headquarter functions across Europe by 130 to 150, of which approximately 95 positions have already been made redundant in Denmark, Poland and Switzerland. On top of this, Carlsberg is planning to transfer 25 employees from Carlsberg IT to BSP, its business standardisation project. Part of these changes will be implemented during 2012.

“We are preparing for challenging market conditions in the coming years in Europe. Our response is to focus on fewer, but more important activities and execute them with greater impact. This also means that there will be activities which we choose not to do or become a lesser priority. At the same time, we have looked for new and more efficient ways of working across the Carlsberg Group,” says chief executive Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen, mentioning as an example that Carlsberg’s digital marketing activities will now be combined into a new entity with much greater co-operation across markets.

Carlsberg is also establishing an integrated supply organisation for Europe, which will incorporate the group procurement, supply chain and logistics functions. The aim is to achieve cost savings and to improve customer service. The organisation will be located in Switzerland and will be in place by the end of 2012.

“The new supply organisation will cross borders and ensure that production is organised as efficiently as possible, capable of delivering all our supply requirements. This will allow our local markets to focus on customers and consumers,” adds Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen.

Peter Ernsting, senior vice president of this new supply organisation, comes with experience from Unilever, where he was responsible for a similar process. Bengt Erlandsson, head of Carlsberg’s procurement activities, will join Peter Ernsting in managing this new organisation.