Staff at West Otago's largest employer are bracing themselves for bad news today, with job losses and other significant changes expected to be announced at Blue Mountain Lumber.
Management have called a staff meeting for 12.30pm, but details of what will be outlined to staff are being kept secret.
Blue Mountain Lumber owner Winstone Pulp International Ltd's managing director, Dave Anderson, declined to comment on what would be discussed at the meeting other than to say there had been "a lot of speculation".
Although no-one would comment officially yet, it is understood the company will outline a restructuring plan that will result in several job losses.
Mr Anderson was contacted at the Conical Hill sawmill yesterday and confirmed he was there to plan and prepare for the meeting.
The company would be issuing a press statement after the meeting. Union officials are expected to meet sawmill union members later this week. The sawmill employs about 110 people. Today's announcement, if it results in layoffs, will be the third major round of redundancies there in the past five years.
Winstone Pulp is a subsidiary of Malaysian company Ernslaw One, the same company that announced the closure of its Naseby Lumber operation in November last year because of a downturn in the timber market.
All seven staff there were offered work at Blue Mountain Lumber. Today's announcement is expected to continue the run of bad news for Otago timber processors in recent months. One major operator, Wenita Forest Products Ltd's Balclutha sawmill, recently sent some staff home for a week, while others in the South face the prospects of laying off staff or, at best, trimming their hours.
