Beer company pulls out the red pencil: Warsteiner is parting ways with every third employee in North Rhine-Westphalia

The Warsteiner Group is consolidating production in North Rhine-Westphalia at a single location. The Herforder and Paderborner brands are moving to the headquarters, the previous breweries are on the verge of closure. More than 330 employees are affected by the restructuring.

The Warsteiner beer company is shedding more than one in three employees in its home country of North Rhine-Westphalia this year. At the Warstein site in Sauerland, negotiations with employee representatives regarding the reduction of around 125 jobs have been completed, the company announced. This will make it possible to reduce the workforce at the headquarters in Warstein to 600 employees by the end of 2026.

“I am sure that with these negotiations we are creating an important prerequisite for the future of the company,” said CEO Bodo-Joachim Wendenburg. In detail, around a third of the jobs to be cut in Warstein will be eliminated due to retirement and the expiration of fixed-term employment contracts. In the event that the necessary number is not reached in this way, a reconciliation of interests with a social plan has been agreed.

Management wants to offer termination agreements

According to the NGG NRW union, it is unclear whether the job cuts in Warstein will result in redundancies for operational reasons. This will become apparent over the course of the month, said state chairwoman Isabell Mura. Management wants to offer employees termination agreements. Employees could also get in touch. If the response is not sufficient, a second step would be to specifically negotiate a social plan in December.

The beer company has already closed its brewery in Herford in the second half of 2026. Around 100 employees are affected. In May, the group also announced the separation from the brewery in Paderborn with more than 100 employees. The goal in Paderborn is still a sale, they say. If this is not done by the end of 2026, operations there will also be discontinued and the associated jobs will be lost.

The job cuts in Herford and Warstein as well as the upcoming separation from the Paderborn brewery will affect more than 330 employees. The beer company, which operates under the name of the founding family as the Haus Cramer Group, concentrates its beer production in North Rhine-Westphalia in Warstein. Production of the Herforder and Paderborner beer brands is relocated to Warstein. This means that the facilities at the headquarters are being utilized more heavily.

The Warstein headquarters has a huge capacity of 6 million hectoliters of annual production. However, the company does not provide any information about capacity utilization. Investing in our own dealcoholization plant and relocating the bottling plant from Herford would create new opportunities in Warstein. The plant in Herford had an annual capacity of 0.3 million hectoliters. In Paderborn the annual capacity is around 1 million hectoliters. The family business justified the deep cuts in North Rhine-Westphalia with the falling beer consumption in Germany. The Haus Cramer Group also has three production sites in Bavaria, which are not affected.