Up to 600 jobs to go at Timaru meat processing plant

Up to 600 jobs are to go from the Alliance Group's meat processing plant in Timaru, with very little prospect of any workers being re-deployed to other plants. It's planning to wind down sheep meat, calf and venison processing at the Smithfield plant by the end of the year, a move that will carve vital jobs out of Timaru. Alliance said the proposed closure is due to a decline in sheep processing numbers caused by a change in land use, Alliance Group Chair Mark Wynne spoke to Lisa Owen.