Fonterra financial staff members at its London St office in Hamilton are under notice of some proposed outsourcing of work to overseas suppliers.
Incoming chief financial officer Andrew Murray said a review of the London St operations is now under consultation.
“Part of the proposal includes co-sourcing elements of our transactional work with an existing partner who has facilities in Bangalore [in India] and [Philippines capital] Manila.
“The changes we’re proposing are not connected to any of Fonterra’s recent announcements and relate to us optimising core operational efficiency to support the entire business.
“As we confirm the impact to our teams through the consultation process, we will talk with our people first.”
Waikato Federated Farmers dairy chair Matthew Zonderop told RNZ he understands the desire to put money back into pockets of Fonterra’s farmer-shareholders “but at the end of the day, there’s a smarter way to do that than outsourcing those jobs offshore”.
He said the New Zealand co-operative should support staff locally.
“We should be keeping that money in New Zealand. I mean that’s what this company is – it’s New Zealand built, New Zealand made.”
