Dairy workers could lose like Fonterra

Workers at Australian dairy company National Foods may soon be rueing their employer's decision to reject a takeover offer by Fonterra and court a so-called "white knight" rival bidder.

The Australian Financial Review has reported that Filipino brewer San Miguel - which outbid Fonterra to take over National Foods in March - may cut several hundred jobs by October.

The unsourced report said San Miguel was overseeing projects to identify cost savings from a merger of its National Foods and Berri units.

One sales force might be formed to sell dairy and juice products manufactured from both companies, likely to cause hundreds of job losses. National Foods has 2300 workers and Berri has 1000. Fonterra launched its takeover offer for San Miguel last October.Liam Dann