Blue Sky Meats Faces Reorganisation

NEW ZEALAND - New Zealand meat processor, Blue Sky Meats is reported to be considering a reoganisation following the announcement of a sharp drop in profits earlier this year and to cope with a changing industry.
calendar icon 17 September 2012
clock icon 2 minute read

According to reports on Stuff Business Day, the company is in negotiations with the meat workers' union over a change to its slaughtering shifts.

The report says that the unions believe the reorganisation could result in the loss of 100 jobs.

The negotiations are taking place before the start of the main slaughter season in the spring which starts in November.

The company is reported to be considering "shrinking" the operations including axing weekend shifts as one of the proposals as well as looking at the seasonal earings for senior staff.

In July, the company reported a pre-tax loss for the year of NZ$604,576 compared to a profit of NZ$6,517,377 in 2011. This was on the back of increased revenue of NZ$114,176,954 compared to NZ$100,899,945 the previous year.

IN the annual report, Chairman Graham Cooney said: "The year ending 31st March 2012 has been the most disappointing in the company’s history. It follows a year that this review described twelve months ago as one of the most successful. This reflects the challenges of the meat industry."

He added on the procurement side that: "Companies cannot blame anyone else for an opening schedule that gave unrealistic expectations to producers and they must also accept full responsibility for not reflecting what was happening in the market as the season progressed."

And of the processing sector he said that because of the changes in procurement during the year: "the need to provide an acceptable level of work and income to workers is a further challenge for the company. The ability to recruit and retain the type of staff the industry requires, is often overlooked in discussions that normally concentrate on farmer and company income."

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