Mondelez International, the company that owns Cadbury, have stated their intention to end their manufacturing operations at the company’s Dunedin factory.
The closure of the Dunedin factory means the loss of 362 jobs, the first phase of which Mondelez have outlined will begin later this year, while 100 employees will remain with the business until early 2018.
“This is a heart-breaking decision for the employees and their families. The impact of this choice will have tidal waves of consequence, which will be deeply felt by the local community,” Sam Huggard, Council of Trade Unions Secretary, said.
Although Mondelez has stated that the expense of manufacturing chocolate in Dunedin is the main reason for shifting their manufacturing premises to Australia, Andrew Little, while addressing the media last Monday from outside the factory, said he saw the move as “classic global corporate behaviour”, going on to describe it as “simply greedy”.
Amanda Banfield, Mondelez’s Area Vice-President for Australia, New Zealand and Japan, explained that: “The company’s proposal is the result of extensive consideration of the issues affecting local production. We operate in an increasingly competitive industry and the factory’s distance from its main market, low volume and complex product portfolio, make it an expensive place to manufacture our products.”
Little joked that the “distance across the Tasman has not changed” in the more than 80 years since Cadbury laid its roots down in Dunedin, reiterating that they “just want more profit”.
Mondelez have told staff not to speak with the media about their redundancy. Little called this move an “unlawful gagging of the workforce”, going on to say that: “nobody can be prevented from talking to anybody about how they feel about the experience.”
Although the manufacturing plant is closing, Mondelez International will retain their tourist attraction, Cadbury World, which attracts approximately 110,000 visitors a year.