Vic: Nestle restructure devastates town

AAP General News (Australia)
08-24-2001
Vic: Nestle restructure devastates town

By Jane Williams and Charisse Ede

MELBOURNE, Aug 24 AAP - Australian manufacturing will lose more than 140 jobs to New
Zealand when food giant Nestle consolidates its confectionery operations next year.

Employees at the company's Maryborough plant in western Victoria were receiving counselling
today after being told the proposed restructure involved the closure of their factory.

Nestle confectionery general manager Roy Harris said the move to Wiri in South Auckland
would take place slowly but should be fully effective by September next year.

The decision was expected to generate an extra $NZ25 million ($A20.55 million) of export
revenue for New Zealand, a Nestle NZ spokesman said.

But the change in operations will have a devastating effect on Maryborough, a town
of 8,200 residents, which already experiences one of the highest unemployment rates in
Australia.

Central Goldfields Shire councillor Barry Rinaldi said the town was still shellshocked
by the news it would lose 142 jobs in the reshuffle.

"Maryborough has an unemployment rate of about 14 per cent," Cr Rinaldi said.

"When people get jobs here they expect to hold them for life.

"The town has been experiencing a wave of development unprecedented in 10 years, it
was looking up. To experience this is a real smack in the mouth."

He said council officers were working with Victoria's State and Regional Development
department to lure new business to the area by offering the advantages of a 15-year-old
factory and an experienced workforce.

Nestle bought out Allen's confectionery after Allen's took a $5 million state government
incentive to transfer its operations from Melbourne to the area in 1985.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) organiser Damian (Damian) King said the
closure would take at least $10 million in direct wages out of the Maryborough community.

The decision came just two days after Nestle International recorded a half-year profit
of $A3.56 billion, Mr King told AAP.

"We believe it's obscene they can make those sort or profits and go and devastate Maryborough
just to make a bit more," he said.

Nestle today blamed global pressures for the Australian closure.

"Although I see a positive future ahead for our confectionery business, this will only
remain so if we continue to be internationally competitive," Mr Harris said.

Nestle's Japanese and Taiwanese operations were transferred to New Zealand last year.

The company has announced plans to close its Waiuku plant, 64km south of Auckland,
and consolidate those operations to Wiri as well.

Nestle New Zealand managing director Paul Ott said production from Waiuku and Victoria
would be progressively transferred, with the process expected to be completed towards
the end of 2003.

AAP jmw/ce/clr/cjh/de

KEYWORD: NESTLE NIGHTLEAD

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