Denmark-based brewer Carlsberg is reportedly planning to cut 2,000 jobs and reduce beer production at its Northampton brewery.

The move comes after the company reported a loss in third quarter due to its struggling businesses in Eastern European markets.

Carlsberg new chief executive Cees’t Hart said: "Acknowledging the fact that the profit development of recent years has not been satisfactory, we are taking further steps to prepare the Carlsberg Group for the future."

In the financial statement as at 30 September 2015, the company said: "In total, we will reduce white-collar headcount by
approximately 2,000 employees, corresponding to around 15%, of which approximately 1,300 have been notified."

"Finally, we are assessing a plan to provide better alignment of our production and logistics capacity with market requirements across various markets in the Group.

"The plan is to enhance the future profitability of the business and will entail reducing capacity within breweries as well as brewery closures."

Carlsberg reported a net loss of DKK4.50bn for the quarter ending 30 September, when compared with a profit of DKK2.10bn the same period last year due to costs of DKK7.7bn.

The sales in the third quarter were DKK18.30bn, an increase from DKK18.12bn in 2014. The company reported that its operating profit before special items was DKK3.47bn, which also saw an increase from DKK 3.39bn.

The brewer recently cut 180 office jobs at its headquarters in Denmark and regional offices in a bid to counterbalance losses from Eastern European markets.