Sealord today confirmed it will cut 70 factory jobs, 11 office-based jobs and another 30 contract workers will no longer be needed at its Nelson wetfish factory.
The staff learnt 10 weeks ago of the company's plan to cut jobs and after consultation confirmation of the changes came today.
The company said work was beginning to finalise the redundancies and the last day of work for most factory staff was expected to be January 30.
Advanced Personnel Services which employs the contract workers has said they will be moved to other work.
In September Nelson MP Nick Smith called the jobs losses a significant blow to Nelson.
Sealord general manager fishing Doug Paulin said that the decision to make changes due to the factory not being financially viable was sad but necessary for the long-term health of the business.
"This is a difficult time for our people and we are supporting them as much as we can," he said.
The Vickerman St factory would remain open and the focus would be on processing fresh fish for Australasia and frozen whole fish for the China market instead of frozen commodity products.
"This allows us to keep a number of our permanent wetfish employees and also continue to offer seasonal work to more than 100 other people in the Nelson region," said Paulin.
While Sealord had delivered a profit for the 2014 year ongoing challenges of rising costs, globally flat white fish pricing and a high exchange rate meant the focus on lower-value commodity products could not continue, he said.
By running a smaller wetfish operation focused on higher value products the company was focusing on the future and ensuring investment in Nelson continued and staffing levels were sustainable, said Paulin.
The January 30 finish meant that employees weren't made redundant just before Christmas and they would have a longer period to secure other employment, said Paulin.
The other factories and fishing crews are not affected by the change and additional frozen processing will take place on board Sealord's vessel Rehua, which will no longer travel to Tasmania as part of its fishing plan.
Source: The Nelson Mail
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