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Property May 6, 2016
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Industry Comment
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Dairy slowdown costs RX 19 jobs
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Tough times in the dairy industry are now hitting support industries, with Ashburton based RX Plastics forced to lay off 19 employees. The roles that will be disestablished come from a total staffing pool of 150 across the company’s three locations and consultation is under way with the affected staff, managing director Brent Dawson said. Ongoing difficulties in New Zealand’s dairy industry continued to impact negatively on RX Plastics, he said. “In order to maintain the long-term viability of RX Plastics, we are consulting with our people to restructure the business to be in a stronger, more competitive position to meet the changing needs of our market.” While 19 positions would be lost, the company was considering a small num-
“
... the likelihood of a short to mediumterm turnaround unfortunately remains very unlikely
ber of new roles in the areas of health and safety, supply chain and innovation, Mr Dawson said. The dairy downturn affected the company’s key irrigation and rural market sectors, representing about 75 per cent of its business, he said. “Our volumes are down significantly from previous years and the likelihood of a short to medium-term turnaround unfortunately remains very unlikely.” Being in a position where cutting staff numbers was unavoidable was extremely difficult for any company, but for RX it
was critical this step was taken to ensure the business was in a stronger position to meet the significant competitive challenges in each of its markets, Mr Dawson said. “We remain completely committed to our people, communities, and customers. RX Plastics will continue to provide value for all of our stakeholders now and into the future.” RX Plastics is a home-grown Ashburton success story. It was founded in 1972 by Hank Murney, John Pugh and Don McKenzie.
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