Fonterra has announced a plan to close its canning and packaging facility in Hamilton at the end of July.
The closure of the site, referred to as Canpac which blended and packaged milk powders, followed the dairy giant’s decision to focus on “higher value” ingredients such as advanced proteins and medical nutrition.
Fonterra chief operating officer Anna Palairet said low product volumes and increasing production complexity has created “challenging economic conditions” for the facility.
“It’s been a tough day for all the team at the site. Making decisions like this is never easy.
“Our strategy is about creating end-to-end value and growing total returns for our farmer shareholders. We believe the best way to achieve this is to focus on our strengths and scale in ingredients and foodservice, and we are prioritising our investment on the parts of our operations that are better suited to this.”
Around 120 people currently worked at the site, near the Te Rapa Racecourse.
The co-operative said it would work through a consultation process that would include potential redeployment opportunities before operations were planned to an end on July 31, 2025.
