Diageo has set out a $1bn cost-reduction programme under new chief executive Sir Dave Lewis. GMB Scotland says 172 distillery roles in the Highlands and Islands have been placed at risk of redundancy as part of it, and that the company intends to cut 38 of them.
The figures come from the union. GMB Scotland, which represents distillery workers in the region, issued its statement on 3 August. Diageo has not put its own numbers to the Scottish reductions. Asked about the union’s account, a company spokesperson said Diageo was “still in consultation on this and no decisions have been made”, and pointed back to February’s interim results, when it set out an intention to redesign its operating framework.
The union says the roles at risk are across Cardhu, Cragganmore and Dufftown in Speyside and Port Ellen on Islay. Diageo operates 31 distilleries in Scotland. GMB Scotland says a four-week consultation ended in late July without agreement on either the number of job losses or the redundancy process, and that it has formally rejected the outcome. Diageo’s position is that consultation continues. Separately, consultation on redundancies is under way at the company’s other production, bottling and distribution sites in Scotland, so the 172 does not represent Diageo’s full Scottish exposure.
Lesley-Anne Macaskill, GMB Scotland organiser for the Highlands and Islands, said the union had held five meetings with the company without progress. “This has not been a genuine consultation but a box-ticking exercise by a company intent on steam-rollering through job losses to a plan that has already been decided,” she said.
The wider programme targets $850m of savings over two years from 2027, plus $150m from supply-chain initiatives, at a restructuring cost of $1.2bn including $514m of employee severance charges. Annual results published on 6 August showed net sales down 3% to $19.643bn and operating profit down 27.2% to $3.156bn for the year to 30 June. Lewis declined to give a global headcount reduction figure but said he had found “massive” duplication in roles since becoming chief executive, and that the “consequences of that are not great for anybody”. Diageo employs around 30,000 people worldwide. The company is separately putting $1bn into Guinness, aiming to lift production capacity from 8.2m hectolitres to 15.7m by 2031.
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Investors backed the plan: the shares closed up 91.5p, or nearly 6%, at 1,732.5p. The reporting year closed on 30 June, before the US lifted its 10% tariff on Scotch whisky imports on 24 July, so the North American and Asia-Pacific weakness in these figures predates that change. The restructuring was announced after the tariff was removed. Lewis said North America, the company’s biggest region by revenue, would need two years to return to growth.
The four distilleries named by GMB Scotland sit in Speyside and on Islay, away from the Central Belt labour market. Diageo has not set out how any reductions would fall across the named sites.
