Golden Circle production makes offshore move to NZ

Heinz is closing its tomato sauce factory in Girgarre in northern Victoria at the expense of 146 jobs, while 160 beetroot-processing jobs will go at its subsidiary Golden Circle's Northgate plant in Brisbane.

Another 38 jobs will be cut when meals production ceases at the Heinz factory in Wagga Wagga in NSW, but the plant, which employs 113 people, will remain open to continue producing canned meat.

As well as the 160 jobs at Northgate, the Golden Circle decision leaves nine beetroot growers in the flood-hit Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, without their main source of income.

Peak horticulture organisation Growcom has called the decision a "devastating blow" for growers, especially after the floods earlier this year.

"Clearly, this is a business decision which Golden Circle has had to make, the same as a grower would on their farm, but it will be sad to see the end of beetroot production in Queensland: an iconic product and an industry worth around $10 million a year," Growcom chief executive Alex Livingstone said.

The Victorian Farmers Federation is also concerned about the impact the Girgarre closure will have on local farmers.

"The VFF's number one priority will be to minimise the impact of changes at the Girgarre plant on Victorian tomato growers," said VFF Horticulture Group president Gaye Tripodi.

Nathan Jackson, a machine operator at the Girgarre sauce plant, said the 146 workers did not see the announcement coming.

"I am going to be the same as everyone else, (there are) lots of young families with mortgages to pay," he said.

"There's a few families here, husbands and wives, and they have just lost their complete income.

"A lot of people are feeling kicked in the bum."

Jackson, a father of a 22-month-old son, has worked at the plant for 15 years and was not sure what the future held as other factories in the area were downsizing.

"Around here there's not that much factory or labour work," he said.

Heinz chief executive Nigel Comer has defended the decision to shift the work to Hastings in New Zealand, saying it will ensure the Australian future of the company which will still employ 1400 people across four major sites.

"It's not so much a matter of being more cost effective," he told reporters in Brisbane.

"It's just that there's a duplication of the infrastructure in factories across the region and it's been a trend of our company over a number of years to actually move production between countries."

The Northgate factory will continue to concentrate on pineapple production and the Golden Circle juice line.

"The more than $20 million investment that we're putting into our beverage line is our priority," Comer said.

Northgate workers will start to lose their jobs from November, while the Girgarre factory will close over the next 12 months.

Heinz will provide redundancy packages, counselling and job search packages to affected staff.

Affected growers would be offered financial and other assistance for transition to other crops or supply arrangements, Comer said.

Friday's announcement comes after Heinz announced to the New York Stock Exchange it was closing five sites around the world as it plans to cut as many as 1,000 jobs globally.