Fonterra has announced plans to shut down its Hamilton canning and packaging facility, known as Canpac, at the end of July 2025.
Approximately 120 employees may be impacted by the closure of the site.
The closure of Canpac, which blended and packaged milk powders, comes after Fonterra’s decision to shift its focus toward “higher value” ingredients like advanced proteins and medical nutrition.
Fonterra chief operating officer Anna Palairet stated that the facility is facing challenging economic conditions due to low product volumes and increasing complexity in production.
“It’s been a tough day for all the team at the site. Making decisions like this is never easy,” Palairet said.
According to Fonterra’s website, Canpac is the company’s largest facility for secondary packaging of milk powders and nutritional products. The site features advanced product-blending equipment, can assembly machines, can-filling lines, and sachet packing machines.
However, the site currently handles packaging of up to 4,000 metric tonnes of powders annually, which accounts for less than 1% of the co-op’s total product volume.
“Our strategy is about creating end-to-end value and growing total returns for our farmer shareholders. We believe the best way to achieve this is to focus on our strengths and scale in ingredients and food service, and we are prioritising our investment in the parts of our operations that are better suited to this,” chief operating officer Palairet explained.
Fonterra stated it will undertake a consultation process, which will include looking at possible redeployment options for staff, before operations are scheduled to cease on July 31, 2025.
“We are committed to supporting our employees as we work through the next steps.”
In February, Fonterra introduced a new corporate identity for its consumer-facing business, naming it Mainland Group in preparation for a potential public listing. The following month, the co-operative began holding roadshow meetings with prospective investors as part of the divestment process for its global consumer and associated businesses.