HAMILTON - New Zealand Dairy Group will lay off 47 staff at its Te Awamutu and Te Rapa factories at the end of this month, and shift 30 of the jobs to the company's Waitoa plant, near Te Aroha.
A $1.5 million laboratory at Te Rapa, opened just 18 months ago,
will close.
Former Te Awamutu staff, who went to Te Rapa after their site was reduced in size, now face a second move.
Dairy Workers Union regional organiser Angus McConnell said he had known of the plan for six months.
He said there was "enormous disappointment" among staff who thought they had job security.
Anchor Products group general manager Gary Romano said the redundancies were due to laboratory testing services being centralised at Waitoa.
Waitoa was chosen for the central laboratory because baby and nutritional products made there required a high amount of testing, he said.
Over the past five years, testing on products made at sites like Te Rapa had reduced by about 70 per cent.
He predicted the move would save 15 per cent in costs.
- NZPA
