They said the changes would impact 80% of the finance staff in Hamilton, seeing up to 100 Hamilton locals lose their jobs, many of whom are long-term staff members.

“A lot of long-serving people are impacted,” the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Cheaper labour was the main reason for the outsourcing, they said.

The scale of the announcement had been “brutal”.

They said it was the beginning of what Fonterra is calling the “future of finance” programme, which will see widespread changes across finance.

Waikato provincial dairy chair for Federated Farmers Matthew Zonderop doesn’t want to see Fonterra jobs go offshore.
STUFF

“All finance functions that Fonterra has around the world will be heading in that direction.

“It’s largely London Street now, but it’s been marked as the start.”

Fonterra declined an interview when approached by the Waikato Times, but in a written statement incoming chief financial officer Andrew Murray said Fonterra had been reviewing its operating model to try and create better returns for its farmer shareholders.

“As part of the financial value we’re aiming to create for farmer shareholders and unit holders, the finance team has been reviewing its operating model to ensure it is set up to support the co-op’s goals in the best way possible.”

Murray said part of these changes would include “co-sourcing” work with an existing partner who has facilities in Bangalore and Manila.

Waikato sharemilker and provincial dairy chair for Federated Farmers Matthew Zonderop said he can understand the loss of jobs to automation, but not outsourcing overseas.

“I don’t agree with job cuts and then them going offshore to do the same sort of job, for cheaper, I don’t agree with that at all. The money’s got to stay in New Zealand.

“As a Fonterra shareholder, supplier, and just an average Kiwi, going off-shore, I’m totally against that.”

While chair of the Fonterra co-operative council John Stevenson said farmers valued the people working at Fonterra and would be concerned to hear of the proposed changes, the matter was operational.

“It’s certainly not our role to tell Fonterra how it runs its business, and I haven’t had feedback from farmers on whether that’s something they’d be supportive of or not.”

He said farmers had asked Fonterra to make cost-saving efficiencies, and the dairy giant was under pressure to perform, particularly in the Waikato where competition was strong between different co-operatives.

“We have challenged Fonterra to be as efficient as possible, and deliver the highest return as possible on our capital that we invest, that’s the challenge we’ve put to Fonterra and how we look to hold Fonterra to account.

“It’s certainly not just a look at the finance function out of the Waikato, we’ve seen Fonterra look at its entire business and make changes at all levels of management.”

He said it was a fine balance between making returns for farmers, and valuing the people employed by the business.

“There’s not a lot of money to be made on the farm, and we expect Fonterra to really look hard at the way they run the farm business, but alongside that we do really value our people that work for us as well, and we can’t do what we do as farmers without our staff doing the important work that they do.”

The Waikato Times understands the proposal will be followed by a consultation process, with final decisions being made on individual redundancies on August 12.

Fonterra said they will let employees know about the changes first, as they go through the consultation process.

“As we confirm the impact to our teams through the consultation process, we will talk with our people first.”

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