Offshore switch hits Maungaturoto staff

Up to 30 people will be offered replacement jobs or voluntary redundancy as a Northland dairy factory moves part of its operation offshore.
Fonterra is transferring a sugar-milk powder blending operation from the Maungaturoto dairy factory to Singapore.
The plant has 160 staff and 20 to 30 will be affected. A handful of those are likely to take voluntary redundancy and the company is looking to place the rest in jobs on the Maungaturoto site or to other dairy factories including Kauri.
The transfer is expected to save Fonterra up to $2 million annually. It will start next month and take up to five months to complete, according to the company's general manager of New Zealand manufacturing, Brent Taylor, of Christchurch.
"Redeployment is our first option for these staff," Mr Taylor said. He stressed that the Maungaturoto blending plant would not close but would continue to produce a protein-milk powder blend accounting for about 25 percent of its present production.
Dairy Workers Union northern field officer Mark Apiata-Wade said the union and Maungaturoto dairy factory staff were bitterly disappointed the blending operation was moving to Singapore.
However, Fonterra had "fronted up with all the costs" and it was understood that labour costs in Northland were not behind the change.
The company had given plenty of notice about the transfer and the union had an agreement with Fonterra that alternative jobs would be offered to blending plant staff.
"It will be a big success for us if every worker who wants a job gets one, and we are hopeful that's what is going to happen," he said.
Mr Taylor said Fonterra had been approached by the international sugar company EF Mann to see if there were any synergies between Fonterra's blending operation and the Europe-based company's ability to supply sugar.
Fonterra at present ships sugar from Queensland to Auckland for refining then sends it to Maungaturoto for processing into a 70 percent sugar, 30 percent milk powder blend. About 25,000 tonnes of the blended product is sold annually in Japan, where it is used in beverages and for baking.
Fonterra had calculated it could save up to $2 million annually in transportation costs and sugar price-related benefits if it did a deal with EF Mann and moved the blending operation to Singapore, Mr Taylor said.
"It's not a question of labour costs - New Zealand and Singapore are about the same," he said.
The transfer of operations from Maungaturoto to Singapore would start next month. It would take three to five months to complete, with sugar-milk blending at Maungaturoto gradually winding down, Mr Taylor said.