Fonterra only told staff about the potential for hundreds of jobs to go several hours after CEO, Theo Spierings, told media.
Spierings fronted the media on Wednesday morning after widespread conjecture over a review under way and the involvement of business management consultant McKinsey & Co, and criticism over the co-operative’s underlying management performance.
He said hundreds of jobs were likely to go as part of the review begun last December though the final numbers are still being worked through.
Fonterra employs 18,000 staff globally and 11,500 in New Zealand.
A staff email was sent out late Wednesday afternoon reaffirming the prospect of job cuts, without quantifying how many.
The email also outlined why Spierings had commented to the media ahead of talking first, as promised, with its staff and farmer shareholders on anything relating to the review.
It’s understood his rationale was that there had been too much public conjecture circulating that he wanted to set straight.
Fonterra said Spierings had already told staff about the prospect of job losses during regular global conference calls that any worker can dial into.
It was first raised in March after weak interim results were released and Jacqueline Chow appointed to the newly created role of chief operating officer – Velocity, tasked with boosting performance across the co-operative and driving the value-add strategy harder.
However, Wednesday’s media comments were the first time Spierings had put any figure around the likely number of layoffs and where they might come from.
He said the bulk of the job losses were likely to be support function roles at the Auckland head office and elsewhere.
“It’s a shift of people and capabilities – and that will have some consequences,” he said.
“We’re not talking tens of people but hundreds of people and having less in support functions and more in market.”
BusinessDesk
