Carter Holt Harvey to close Tokoroa plywood plant with 119 jobs lost

Carter Holt Harvey’s Tokoroa plywood plant will close in November, cutting 119 jobs. Photo / Google Maps Street View

By RNZ

Workers at Carter Holt Harvey’s Tokoroa plywood plant have been told that 119 jobs will be lost.

The company delivered the news to workers this afternoon with the plant expected to shut down in November.

A union delegate confirmed the news to RNZ. He says a handful of workers will keep their jobs to process imported timber.

The future of the factory has been up in the air for the last two weeks after the owners began consultations on closing the plant.

Owner of Morrissey’s clothing store Larry Sullivan said most of the plywood factory workforce were locals.

He said it was a hard time, but people were focused on taking care of each other.

“Everybody is sort of worried about individuals, you keep reeling off names when there’s a few guys standing around at the pub, ‘How’s this guy getting on’, ‘How’s that guy getting on’.

“So yeah, a lot of caring I think, and yeah, it’s just one punch after the other sort of thing at the moment.”

-RNZ