Sealord eyes Dunedin cutback

About 160 people at Sealord's Dunedin fish-processing plant look set to lose their jobs as the company makes plans to move its operations.

The company said yesterday that it was considering concentrating wetfish processing in Nelson, increasing staff there and scaling down in Dunedin.

Chief executive Doug McKay said Sealord had reviewed land-based operations and believed it could do its wetfish processing at one site.

"Nelson has the capacity to handle the increased volume."

McKay said Sealord wanted to retain its Dunedin plant mainly for squid processing.

The scaled-down plant would employ up to 60 staff, compared with the 200 to 300 now employed.

"We are asking the Dunedin staff and union to give us feedback on the option of scaling down the plant by February 4, and we will make a final decision on February 9."

The company would help staff to find other jobs or would possibly employ them in Nelson, McKay said.

The southern regional secretary of the Service and Food Workers Union, Campbell Duignan, said the union would assess Sealord's proposal in detail "and consult with our members over their response to it early next week".

McKay said Sealord's wetfish operations had been hit by reductions in hoki quota.

"We strongly support the reduction in the hoki TACC [total allowable commercial catch] to allow the stock to recover, but we expect it to take at least three to four years for the hoki fishery to bounce back."

He said retaining a scaled-down Dunedin plant would give Sealord the option of bringing it back into full production when the hoki quota rebounded.

The company was also considering reducing its fleet, but whatever it decided, it would retain "a strong presence" in Dunedin.

Sealord has an annual turnover of about $600 million, with 93 per cent of its product exported to the United States, Europe or Japan.

- NZPA