Murray Goulburn cuts 301 jobs

Murray Goulburn Cooperative (MG) has announced it will be scrapping 301 jobs at its head office and processing sites as part of its aim to reduce operating costs by $100 million this year.

The company said the changes “will improve manufacturing efficiencies, reduce head office costs and aim to increase MG’s global competitiveness and deliver higher farmgate prices.”

“The change program, embarked on by Murray Goulburn, is even more critical given the recent significant decline in world market prices due to higher global milk supply,” said Managing Director Gary Helou. “This initiative will help reduce the impact of falling world prices, and a high Australian dollar, on our suppliers/shareholders.”

“There are difficult but necessary decisions to ensure that Murray Goulburn can remain competitive. It is in the interest of our suppliers, shareholders, employees, communities and customers that MG remains a strong business into the future. We will continue to invest in programs and initiatives to significantly lower our operating costs, improve manufacturing efficiencies and strengthen our dairy foods portfolio.”

The 301 positions include 168 redundancies at the company’s processing sites and distribution centres and 59 head office redundancies. MG says it will support staff with counselling and job transitioning services. Full entitlements will be paid out for the redundancies.

The company said all its processing sites will remain open and production will not be affected by the changes.