Fonterra to lose roles as part of a broader shakeup, Air NZ also jettisoning jobs soon
Monday, 22 June 2026
Global dairy behemoth Fonterra has followed a rejig of its management ranks with a process to jettison staff - and it is thought about 100 jobs could be on the chopping block.
The Dairy Workers Union confirmed to Stuff it was in negotiations with Fonterra, although was seeking to see fewer jobs lost than 100.
The company employs about 12,000 people in New Zealand, amongst a global workforce of up to 20,000.
The union’s national secretary, Chris Flatt said it was confident the number of job losses would be fewer once “redeployment and alternative roles,” were negotiated. The union covers 6000 staff within New Zealand.
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Fonterra was contacted for information on exactly how many roles could be lost and where they’d be from.
A company spokesperson said the company would not be saying anything about numbers of jobs going.
But there was information about where the jobs might be lost within the organisation - there would be changes to the co-op’s transport operations to a more centralised, standardised national transport model for example, a supplied statement said.
“These changes do not impact our ability to reliably pick up milk. Our priority right now is supporting our people, with the intent to make every reasonable effort to redeploy any impacted employees.”
Fonterra runs a fleet of over 500 milk collection tankers driven by more than 1600 operators.
There would also be changes coming out of a broader, company wide strategic change to its organisational structure in the wake of selling off its consumer business.
Fonterra completed the $4.22 billion sale of Mainland Group, its consumer brands business (excluding China), to French dairy giant Lactalis at the end of March.
Shortly thereafter, long-standing chief executive chief executive Miles Hurrell resigned after eight years leading the company, and Richard Allen stepped in from May 1.
Chief Innovation and Brand Officer, Komal Mistry-Mehta, also decided to leave in October, ending a 15-year career with the business.
In one of his first moves, Allen changed the internal management structure of the company from a 'channel-led' setup, to a 'market-led' model. It meant in each market, there would be a “single point of sales accountability” for both its Ingredients and Foodservice streams, rather than a more siloed structure.
The co-operative is now a streamlined business-to-business company, supplying raw bulk ingredients and food solutions to commercial clients globally.
Fonterra told The Post that as a result, “there will be changes to our organisational structure. When there are changes to organisational structure our people, particularly those whose roles are impacted, are the first to know.
“Given the sensitive nature of these changes, we won’t be commenting further.”
Fonterra had a lush half year to the end of March, with net profit reaching $750 million versus $729m last year, and revenue also soaring to $1.231 billion, compared with $1.107b the year prior.
Farmers received $3.2b of Fonterra capital payments in the last few months - the proceeds of Fonterra’s sale of its brands business, plus a special dividend and an interim result dividend - with an average payout estimated at $392,000 - $400,000 per farm.
Air New Zealand cuts
Air New Zealand has gradually been shedding mainly head office staff ahead of what is expected to be an up to $390 million loss for the year to June 30.
It is understood that about 12 jobs will be cut in leadership, corporate and back office staff, possibly as early as this week.
Jobs like flight attendants, baggage handlers, engineers, front-of-house staff were unaffected.
The airline had foreshadowed the redundancies last month, and a spokesperson confirmed that affected staff had begun to leave the business from that time.
The cuts were part of a programme to slash about $100m in cost savings, most of which would come from renegotiating contacts and project deferrals.