Danish renewable energy company Orsted said on Wednesday it plans to reduce its global workforce by about 2,000 employees by the end of 2027 as part of a broad organisational overhaul aimed at increasing efficiency and competitiveness.
The company, which currently employs approximately 8,000 people, said the move is aligned with the completion of several major construction projects in the coming years and a strategic shift to concentrate on offshore wind and key European and Asia-Pacific markets. Orsted expects to operate with around 6,000 employees by the end of the restructuring period.
The workforce reduction will be implemented through a combination of natural attrition, outsourcing, divestments, and redundancies, with around 500 roles to be cut in the fourth quarter of 2025. Of those, approximately 235 positions will be lost in Denmark.
“From now and until the end of 2027, we’ll be saying goodbye to many skilled and valued colleagues who’ve contributed greatly to Orsted,” said Chief Executive Rasmus Errboe. “However, this is a necessary consequence of our decision to focus our business and the fact that we’ll be finalising our large construction portfolio in the coming years – which is why we’ll need fewer employees.”
Errboe said the restructuring will help Orsted build a more flexible and cost-effective organisation capable of competing for new offshore wind projects. “We want to create a more efficient and flexible organisation and a more competitive Orsted, ready to bid on new value-accretive offshore wind projects,” he said.
The company aims to achieve annual cost savings of approximately €268 million (DKK 2 billion) starting in 2028, which have been factored into its long-term financial plan.
Orsted said it remains committed to its 8.1 gigawatt construction portfolio across three continents, which it described as its largest to date. The company also highlighted recent steps taken to strengthen its financial position, including a successful rights issue and the streamlining of its strategic focus.
“We’re fully committed to finalising our 8.1GW construction portfolio across three continents,” Errboe said. “At the same time, we’re building a more financially robust and competitive company with solid earnings, which will increase as we complete our projects.”
Under its revised strategy, Orsted will concentrate on offshore wind in Europe and selected Asia-Pacific markets while continuing to operate its combined heat and power assets in Denmark efficiently.
