World’s largest food company is cutting 16,000 jobs due partly to automation

Cartons of Chuckie, a Nestle chocolate-flavored milk drink, at the company's factory in Batangas province, the Philippines, on April 2, 2019. Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg/Getty Images London —

Nestlé will cut around 16,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years as it works to slash costs, including through automation, the world’s largest food company said Thursday.

Most of the layoffs – about 12,000 – will affect white-collar professionals as Nestlé targets “operational efficiency,” including by automating processes and using shared services, the company behind such brands as KitKat and Nesquik said in a statement .

Another 4,000 roles will go in manufacturing and the supply chain as part of measures to improve productivity. The overall job cuts will amount to almost 6% of Nest