Bakery town fears for future

Photo / Babiche Martens.

Residents and workers in a small township fear it will lose its economy and its identity if its largest employer is forced to cut jobs.

The 88-year-old independent bakery Yarrows, in Manaia, South Taranaki, was placed in receivership on Tuesday, and the union representing its workers has predicted redundancies.

The bakery employs up to 200 people from the township at the foot of Mt Taranaki, which has a population of 1009.

Manaia residents said yesterday the business was more than an employer - it was the biggest influence on the town's history and culture.

The receivers have asked employees not to comment on the factory's financial situation.

A supervisor employed at the bakery for 15 years, who did not want to be named, said the business "is like L&P to Paeroa. We have a big loaf of bread in the middle of Manaia. The factory is right in the heart of the town.

"There's nothing else to attract you to a little place like Manaia. It's purely a residential area. Yarrows is the iconic part of the town."

The Manaia-born father-of-three said some workers were already planning to leave the town, but he was too closely connected to the community to leave.

"I've made a huge commitment to stay here for the long haul, and even though we're going through this process, hopefully we'll come out on the better side.

"But for a lot of [the staff], they've had enough now. Yarrow's has done a lot for Taranaki, but there's a fair bit of negativity after the setbacks we've had in the last year or two."

The bakery laid off 29 staff in 2009 when it moved part of its business to Australia.

A packer at Yarrows was concerned that mass job losses would have a domino effect on Manaia's economy.

"We certainly don't want this to turn into a go-through town. We want people to be able to stop off at the shops and the watering hole."

He was concerned that farming and the bakery were the only employment options for locals.

"You're not spoilt for choice for jobs. There isn't an alternative for many people. The majority of us are labourers and all we've got to sell is our hands. So we'd be competing for similar jobs."

But South Taranaki Mayor Ross Dunlop said that the bakery's demise was not a symptom of a larger decay in the region. He said South Taranaki had alternative factory work in the region's thriving dairy sector and meatworks and in the growing oil and gas industry. He was optimistic that Yarrows would find a buyer and a new life.

"It's a reasonably modern plant, and it has a loyal and hard working workforce. It has a lot of plusses going for it."

Yarrows Family Bakers produced 40,000 loaves of bread a day, and exported to Subway sandwich outlets in Australasia and East Asia and also to North America, the Pacific, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Yarrow name is stamped all over Manaia, which has a single grocery store, two dairies and one pub. The rugby stadium in New Plymouth bears its name, and the company sponsors sports teams.