The Pareora lamb and beef site would receive a $5million investment to house a new venison processing plant as part of the change.
Silver Fern leases land on the Waterloo Rd site, in Christchurch, at present.
Chief executive Dean Hamilton said the lease was due to expire soon and it was planned to demolish the plant buildings on the site to make way for new commercial developments in the Waterloo Business Park.
Staying at the business park site was no longer an option for the company, he said.
Islington was the only one of Silver Fern's 19 plants around the country to occupy a leased site. In the past 18 months, the site around Silver Fern had been redeveloped into a commercial business park, which was good for the area.
"However, it's not going to be suitable for our specific processing operation. Given the circumstances, we plan to close the site and are consulting with the 54 Islington staff and their union to discuss the proposal and transfer options within the company.''
The options were for staff to transfer to other local sites, such as Belfast or Fairton, to the Hokitika venison plant or the new processing operation at the Pareora site, Mr Hamilton said. Job number would increase at Pareora as a result of the move, whether or not Islington workers chose to relocate.
Staff would retain all their service benefits in the process.
"We appreciate there are some big decisions ahead for our people, which makes it a difficult time for them, and we are working with them and their union.''
With the planned closure of the Islington site, the company's lamb and beef processing plant at Pareora had been chosen to have a $5million investment to house a new venison processing operation, which would service the upper and central South Island, he said.
Pareora was the obvious site. It was central to many of the company's deer farmers, Silver Fern owned the land, providing long-term certainty, and the assets and services already on site could be used.
"It is an opportunity for us to invest in a modern venison plant and we have the ability to continue to expand our operations on that site in the future.''
