Dunedin hit by more job cuts after major losses at Cadbury, University

Foodstuffs, The Warehouse and Mitre 10 have all confirmed job cuts in Dunedin. Photo / 123RF

A total of 37 jobs are now threatened in Dunedin, with a third major company confirming jobs will be lost to Christchurch, topping almost 400 job losses announced during the past five months.

When contacted, Foodstuffs South Island in Dunedin declined to put a number on the extent of Dunedin jobs under threat, but two sources have said up to 15 administration and finance jobs would be axed, including some staff who had been with Foodstuffs for several decades.

The Foodstuffs redundancies, from its Andersons Bay distribution centre in Dunedin, follow confirmation last week The Warehouse is cutting 12 online Dunedin jobs and a further 10 staff are going from Mitre 10 in Dunedin.

In mid-March, Cadbury's chocolate factory owner Mondelez announced 360 jobs would be gone by early 2018, and last month fears were raised that up to 300 administrative general staff jobs could be lost from the University of Otago.

Foodstuffs South Island general manager, finance, Malcolm Wratt confirmed when contacted yesterday that "due to operational changes" in the co-operative's finance department, it had proposed a restructuring "of a number of Dunedin-based positions over the coming months".

"For some time now, the business has been implementing new systems and processes to drive efficiencies and savings in the co-operative, which we are able to pass on to our customers," he said.

Despite emailing replies to questions as requested, Wratt did not answer whether the Dunedin jobs would be replaced by six new positions in Christchurch, whether redundancies covered all the lost positions or how many staff were left in Dunedin.

"It is with regret that, consequently, a number of positions in the business are no longer required," Wratt said in his response.

Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan said when contacted while Dunedin's small to medium businesses, 20 or fewer employees, were "doing well", it was "unusually the big businesses" at the forefront of change.

"Christchurch is heading into the growth phase, from its rebuild. This has created a competitive advantage for them.

"Since about October new business facilities and infrastructure are now in place, [internet] connectivity, automation, transport and distribution," McGowan said of Christchurch.

Dunedin still retained "opportunities" for businesses, including Port Otago's trade route access and Gigatown, with its cheaper access to ultra-fast broadband for three years.

"We have to reconnect with these major [retail] chains' head offices to grow our competitiveness," he said.

Wratt said Foodstuffs was consulting the Dunedin staff, asking for alternative proposals and discussing the options available to them.

He could not yet confirm the number of staff affected, or the timing of the change, he said.

One source said Wratt and another member of management visited Dunedin last week and outlined closure of the Dunedin office.

Jobs would be moved to Christchurch, under six new positions.

Positions would be lost from early October through to the end of November.

While it was understood all staff would receive redundancy payments, that was "little comfort" for staff who had been "loyal through many decades of service," another source said.

Wratt said until the consultation process was complete he was unable to provide any further detail.

"Our priority is to ensure affected team members and their colleagues have ample support and clear communications, with the opportunity to feedback on the process," he said.