SFF confirms Fairton closure, loss of 370 jobs

Yesterday Silver Fern Farms (SFF) chief executive Dean Hamilton confirmed the plant's closure. Photo / File

The axe has fallen on Silver Fern Farms' Fairton plant north of Ashburton, with confirmation of its closure and the loss of 370 jobs.

The proposal was aired two weeks ago and yesterday Silver Fern Farms (SFF) chief executive Dean Hamilton confirmed the plant's closure.

He said the decline of sheep numbers in the region during the past decade could not be ignored.

Before 2010, Fairton consistently processed more than 1million lambs each season, but that fell below 500,000 two seasons ago to just 325,000 in its last season.

Mr Hamilton said SFF would pay redundancies to all affected staff and 230 roles were available at sites including Pareora, Belfast and Hokitika.

Last year SFF closed Mossburn in northern Southland and Frasertown in Wairoa, which cost a total 110 jobs.

After Fairton's closure, SFF would consolidate the region's sheep processing to Pareora, about 10 minutes south of Timaru, where the company had spent $7million the past year improving cold storage capability and installing a state-of-the-art venison line.

It would now invest a further $1million to support consolidation of Fairton's sheep volume, Mr Hamilton said.

He said the more than $260million investment by Shanghai Maling last December into SFF to form a 50:50 partnership enabled SFF to invest $22million in capital expenditure this year, an almost threefold increase on the $8million spent the year before the Shanghai Maling deal.

The capital expenditure included health and safety improvements, robotics systems, processing room upgrades and more efficient cold chain infrastructure, with over $20million expected to be spent annually, he said.

The Fairton pelthouse would remain in operation with no decision made on the wider site.