Mercedes-Benz Offers Buyouts to Senior Managers as Works Council Flags Capacity Cuts

Mercedes-Benz plans a December buyout reaching management for the first time, while its works council warns of German capacity cuts.

Mercedes-Benz is widening its cost-reduction net on two fronts, preparing a fresh voluntary redundancy round that will reach into management ranks for the first time while its works council publicly warns of plans to trim production capacity across Germany.

The buyout programme, expected to launch in December, targets indirect areas of the business, according to the company's plans. Unlike earlier initiatives, senior executives will now be eligible for the offer — a broadening of scope that signals how deep the restructuring has cut into the organisation.

Works Council Goes Public on Capacity and Pay

Michael Häberle, deputy head of the group works council, disclosed the internal deliberations, saying management intends to reduce production capacity throughout Germany. The disclosure has stirred considerable unease among the workforce, coming as the company simultaneously negotiates noticeable changes to working conditions.

On the table are existing pay and working-time models, including a proposed 38-hour week at unchanged salary. At the same time, cuts to collectively agreed special payments are looming, a combination that would sharpen the savings drive further. Buyouts are intended to complement these steps as a way of shrinking headcount.

Buyback Keeps Rolling

Against that unsettled backdrop, the Stuttgart carmaker continues to return capital to shareholders. Roughly a week ago the company reported the acquisition of 895,000 of its own shares. Since the programme began in September, the total has reached 2,976,805 shares.

There was movement among the shareholder base as well: BlackRock notified the Mercedes-Benz Group AG that it had crossed a voting-rights threshold. On the operational side, FUCHS SE and Mercedes-Benz extended their strategic business partnership on Thursday.

Washington Talks and a Paris Stage

Regulatory questions are also in play internationally. U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno said on Wednesday that ongoing talks are meant to ensure a U.S. bill covering vehicles with Chinese involvement does not shut Mercedes-Benz out of the American market. According to Reuters, the draft would bar companies with more than 15 percent Chinese ownership, while Mercedes-Benz carries a passive Chinese stake of nearly 20 percent.

Closer to home, market participants are turning their attention to a pair of October dates. Mercedes-Benz holds a press conference at the Paris Motor Show on 12 October at 14:45 CEST, offering a first look at its model and technology offensive. On 28 October 2026 the group publishes its interim report for the third quarter, accompanied by a conference call for analysts and investors.

A Bruised Multiple Into the Numbers

Sentiment in the equity has been subdued all year. The stock closed Friday at EUR 39.90, down 34 percent since the start of the year, leaving it just 0.5 percent above its 52-week low.

The quarterly figures will have to show how market conditions and the measures set in motion have fed through to earnings power in the third quarter — and how the company intends to square its savings agenda with the resistance now surfacing from its own workforce.