The co-operative is proposing a restructure at the packing plant in Te Rapa to focus more on baby nutritionals.
Director New Zealand operations Robert Spurway said the plant would move to operating 24 hours a day on weekdays instead of seven days a week, which could mean about 110 roles may not be required.
The operation currently employs 330 people.
Spurway said the company had been considering how to make the site run more efficiently after a reduction in packaging volume.
Fonterra would try to find jobs for affected staff at its other plants in the Waikato, and elsewhere in the country if necessary, he said.
The region’s dairy processing plants were gearing up for their busiest time of the year handling peak spring milk production and would have more job opportunities, he said.
Fonterra employs about 2000 people in the Waikato and had invested more than $150 million in the region in the past three years.
Canpac is Fonterra’s largest secondary packager of milk powders, branding and exporting more than 300 different nutritional powders, bulk-blended nutritional milk powders, cans, and can parts.
Up to 40 shipments leave the plant daily.
Most of its production is exported to China and Asia. The site also manufactures products for the New Zealand market, and for Australia, the Pacific, the Americas, and Japan.
Spurway said further investment in the Waikato was under consideration but Fonterra had to make decisions based on what aligned with its strategy, and drive returns to its farmer-shareholders.
The company recently spent $120 million on a new long-life milk processing plant at Waitoa and $30 million on a cream cheese plant at its Te Rapa site. These two projects had created 90 permanent jobs, he said.
Fonterra was also applying for consents to build a new powder drier at its Lichfield site in south Waikato, which would create 50 processing jobs.
