Soap jobs move abroad

Kiwi icon Sunlight soap and a range of toothpastes will no longer be made in New Zealand - production is shifting to India and Indonesia as Unilever cuts 55 jobs at its Petone factory.

The company's 330 staff were given the news at the Petone plant yesterday by manufacturing manager Murray Papps.

It follows a global reshuffle begun by Unilever's parent last year.

Unilever Australasia had hoped its Petone arm would be sheltered from the reshuffle, with Mr Papps saying last year that it had already been through considerable rationalisation in the past 10 years.

Bar soaps - including Lux, Knights Castile, Norsca and its oldest brand, Sunlight, which has been made since 1919 - will no longer be produced at Petone from mid-2002. Close-up and Aim toothpaste production will stop at the end of next year.

Soap for New Zealand will be made in Indonesia and Australia, and toothpaste in India.

Mr Papps said demand for tallow-based soaps had declined with the switch to liquid soaps, and Unilever's toothpaste brands had also lost market share.

The company decided several years ago these were no longer core products and investment in developing them was stopped.

He gave an assurance that Unilever was committed to continue manufacturing at its Petone site, which produces 80,000 tonnes of products a year, mostly laundry powders for Australia and New Zealand.

Engineers' Union delegate Allan Mollins said the company had the best redundancy package of any plant in New Zealand - 12 weeks' pay for the first year of service and four weeks for each year thereafter.

Workers also got a share of their unused sick leave.

Unilever Australasia is a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever Group, which makes and sells a wide range of soap and food products.

This year company chairman Antony Burgmans announced a deal for New Zealand hoki to be used in fish products in Britain as part of the conglomerate's frozen food range.

Lower Hutt Mayor John Terris said his sympathies were with workers at Petone, however, he was pleased that redundancies involved only one-fifth of the workforce and that the factory had a good future.

But Green Party co-leader Rod Donald said it was "stupid that something as basic as soap will have to be imported and add to our [balance of payments] deficit and that people will be put out of jobs".

He said consumers needed to be more aware that shopping was a "political act", and buying New Zealand products would support jobs for New Zealanders.

Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce executive officer Brian Edwards said business activity in Petone and Seaview remained strong - "I understand when the old Gear Meat Company was in its prime it employed 800 people. Now that site is used by 2300 workers."

- NZPA