McCain Foods is closing its Timaru plant vegetable processing division with the loss of 30 jobs due to “national over-capacity” within the unit.
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The food giant has cited factors including diminishing sales in Japan, China and South-East Asia for the over-capacity.
The New Zealand plant employs around 240 people of which 30 worked on the vegetable line.
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said many of the workers will be able to get jobs at a french-fry line at the plant but said there will still be some redundancies and workers who swap plants will face a “significant change in shift patterns”.
“There has never been a question about the quality of the work or the product from the Timaru site but from what we understand it was chosen for closure as it is the least efficient McCain processor in the country due to aging plant and equipment,” said EPMU lead organiser John Gardner.
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By GlobalDataThe Union said it will be consulting closely with the company up until the November closure in order to “get the best possible outcome” for its members.
