Canterbury dairy company Synlait Milk is looking at cutting 150 jobs to save $10 to $12 million.

Synlait CEO John Penno said Synlait has been through a lot of change over the last 12 months.

“This means some areas are now over-resourced, and some areas are under-resourced. We need to review and reset the structure of our business to match our current goals to be successful.”

“The proposed changes are designed to align leadership and resourcing around key business units (Nutritionals, Ingredients, and Liquids) and remove any unhelpful hierarchy from the organisation to ensure staff have the information, resources, and freedom to act as they need to, to do their jobs every day.”

He said “as part of this, we are also on a journey to transform our culture. We need to build teams that are working together with clear roles and responsibilities, and the systems needed to chase the growth we are looking to achieve. This is not just a cost-out exercise, it is a complete reset of how we operate as a business.”

The proposed structure would see Synlait’s overall headcount reduced by approximately 15%.

Synlait is discussing the proposed changes with impacted team members and union representatives.

The consultation process will take place over the next two weeks.