By LIAM DANN, primary industries editor
Fonterra's corporate headquarters will move to a central Auckland glass tower next year.
About 600 staff will be based at the former KPMG centre in Princes St in a move the company believes will save $1 million a year.
The Wellington office and seven Auckland offices -
including the current head office at Auckland Airport - will close.
Chief executive Andrew Ferrier said that bringing staff together under one roof was an important step in developing a strong culture at Fonterra.
It is understood that Fonterra will sell Pastoral House in Wellington.
Dairy industry commentator Neville Martin said the company's operations in Wellington had been winding down for some time and the news of the building's closure would not be a great shock for staff.
Dairy Farmers of New Zealand chairman Kevin Wooding said that farmers had been expecting that the company would consolidate its operations.
"It's good that they are going to save $1 million a year, but farmers will find it hard to accept that they need to be in central Auckland."
Farmers were never particularly happy with the head office moving north of the Bombay Hills, particularly because Fonterra was not fully using the "excellent" Anchor House, the former NZ Dairy Group headquarters in Hamilton.
The original argument for an Auckland head office was the need to be based near the airport. That no longer stacked up so farmers would find this move hard to accept.
Wooding said Fonterra needed to build its culture from the shareholders up. "This is not going to help the process."
A Fonterra spokesman said the move was expected to be completed by May, much earlier than other options would have allowed.
The Princes St building is owned by a syndicate of property investors and managed by McLachlan Financial Services.
