Moët Hennessy tight-lipped on 1,200 job cuts
The wine and spirits division of luxury goods company LVMH, Moët Hennessy, is staying silent on reports it will slash its workforce by 10% due to poor sales results.
First reported in the Financial Times, the paper said Jean-Jacques Guiony, Moët Hennessy chief executive, and his deputy, Alexandre Arnault, reportedly told staff in the wine and spirits arm that employee numbers would be cut to pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019.
That would equate to approximately 1,200 people out of 9,400 employees.
Despite several requests for comment, Moët Hennessy has not responded on the matter.
The spirits arm of LVMH declined by 17% during the company’s first quarter of 2025 due to continued soft demand for Cognac in the US and China. The company’s portfolio includes Hennessy Cognac, Glenmorangie and Ardbeg.
Paris-headquartered LVMH reported revenue of €629 million (US$714.8m) for spirits in the first three months of 2025 (Q1), down from €736m (US$836m) year on year.
It followed a full-year sales drop of 14% for LVMH’s spirits division in 2024.
There have been a swathe of job cuts across several spirits companies in the past few months.
In March, Diageo announced it would no longer be bringing new brands into the Distill Ventures accelerator programme, which resulted in job losses.
Denmark’s biggest whisky maker, Stauning, cut around 25% of its workforce following Diageo’s exit from Distill Ventures.
Meanwhile, in April, Scotch whisky and gin maker Isle of Harris Distillery revealed plans to restructure its business after facing “challenging headwinds”. The restructure will involve a reduced headcount and a pull back on production.
Over in the US, Green River, based in Kentucky, scaled down its staff numbers on 1 April, but stressed the reduction was not due to tariffs.
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