Mystery over Sealed Air meeting

Mystery surrounds a "communication meeting" for all of the more than 100 staff at Rotorua branch of Sealed Air (New Zealand) tomorrow.

Management say they are prepared to talk publicly about the meeting but not until after it has been held.

A staff member, who did not want to be named, said staff at the Te Ngae Rd company received a memo last Wednesday informing them of a "communication meeting" tomorrow and that it was important all staff attend.

At the end of last year, Holmes Group, which owns the 2.7ha site, applied for resource consent to build a convenience retail complex. The complex, which would be known as Lynmore Junction, would include a supermarket, which is expected to create almost 300 jobs. A hearing has been set aside for June 11 and 12.

When Holmes Group applied for resource consent its managing director Ryan Holmes said Sealed Air (New Zealand) was expanding its Hamilton site. Mr Holmes said they had consulted with Sealed Air (New Zealand).

The directors of Holmes Group said they had identified there was a real risk that the lease might not be renewed by the current tenants in September 2014 when the tenants' first term expired.

At that time, Sealed Air regional purchasing manager for Australia and New Zealand Robert Di Giacomo, who is based in Melbourne, said he was "not at liberty" to say whether the business would be renewing its lease after September 2014. He said then they had a legal obligation to inform the landlord 15 months out from the end of the lease.

Meanwhile, the staff member said a meeting was held after the Holmes Group went public with its resource consent application and staff were told that Sealed Air was in negotiations with the Holmes Group and there "wasn't anything concrete".

The staff member said several staff from the company, which employed between 110-120 people, had transferred to the Hamilton site.

Sealed Air manufacturing director John Hall, who is based in Hamilton, confirmed a communication meeting was to be held tomorrow morning but he was not in a position to comment further until after the meeting.

Mr Hall said about a dozen Rotorua staff had transferred to the Hamilton site in the past three to four months but that was part of "normal business" and nothing to do with this week's meeting.