Fonterra intends relocating 160 Auckland staff from HQ to Takanini

Fonterra's head office in Fanshawe St, Auckland. Photo / NZ Herald.

Fonterra is looking at relocating 160 Fonterra Brands staff from its headquarters in Fanshawe Street, Auckland, to the co-op's Takanini manufacturing site.

Brett Henshaw, managing director of Fonterra Brands, confirmed to the Herald that the co-op had been talking to staff about the relocation plan.

"We are a manufacturing and brands business and it is important for us to bring our commercial and operational teams closer together to get the best results," he said.

"Takanini will provide us with an ideal 'home base' for Brands in New Zealand that is closer to some of the products we manufacture," he said.

"If we do end up going ahead with this move, it won't be until mid-2020 - and before the decision is finalised, we still have some work to do to ensure the building and facilities can accommodate everyone," he said.

Around 1100 people work at Fonterra's Auckland HQ building.

The Herald understands Fonterra Brands' staff originally moved from South Auckland to the downtown office under the directive of former chief executive Theo Spierings.

New Zealand's biggest company is cleaning house after a disastrous financial performance and is expected to cut a swathe of staff at its Auckland head office.

Last month the co-op announced a new strategy designed to unlock value focus on three goals – "healthy people, healthy environment and healthy business".

Fonterra has dropped ambitions to be a global dairy giant sourcing milk from around the world in a new business strategy which dictates "less is more".

"This is the right strategy for us, but it requires us to make some hard choices, chief executive Miles Hurrell said at Fonterra's results presentation.

Fonterra posted a net loss of $605 million for the July year, on asset writedowns of $826m.

That followed the previous year's loss of $196m and has sparked a string of asset sales and a significant change in direction for the dairy giant.

The writedowns included a $203m impairment of its China Farms investment and $237m on its New Zealand food service business. The overall figure would have been worse if not for a $100m gain on the disposal of ice cream company Tip Top.

The co-op was forced to delay the release of its annual accounts while auditor PwC worked through significant accounting adjustments related to the write-downs.

Fonterra's NZX-traded units were last quoted at $4.12, up 2c from Thursday's close.