Fonterra has announced it will close some of its plants at its Te Rapa and Waitoa sites in Waikato.
Its Waitoa PDC (specialty powders) and the site’s coal centre, along with Dryer 1 and 2 at Te Rapa, will close as the co-operative looks to optimise its operations, Fonterra director NZ manufacturing Alan van der Nagel said.
He said that while these plants have served Fonterra well, they are ageing assets and are no longer efficient to operate.
“For these reasons, we have let our teams know of plans to close these plants. Our Waitoa and Te Rapa manufacturing sites will continue to operate.”
At Waitoa, the impacted operations will discontinue near the end of the year, affecting 41 jobs, he said.
“We are working with the team on redeployment opportunities within the co-op. We will continue to operate our specialty nutrition dryer and UHT plants at Waitoa.”
At Te Rapa the two impacted dryers will discontinue operations in May and there are sufficient vacancies on site to redeploy the small number of roles that will be affected.
The two dryers at Te Rapa are close to 60 years old while the Waitoa plant is close to 40 years old.
Van der Nagel said the changes allow the co-op to ensure its resources are geared towards high value products.
“For example, we are increasing production capacity at Hautapu to meet growing demand for lactoferrin and at Pahiatua we are gearing up to produce more caramelised milk powder for growing future demand. Our priority right now is supporting our teams through this change.”
Asked if the closure decision was connected to Fonterra’s Scope 1 and 2 targets, he said:
“Our decision to close these assets is driven by the need to adapt to changing market demands and pursue our long-term strategic goals, along with the assets being inefficient to run. While not the primary driver of the decision, the closure of the specialty powders plant at Waitoa does mean we will be able to operate the remaining assets on site with the new biomass boiler, which completes our strategy to exit coal in the North Island.”
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