SASKATOON (Staff) – The 60 job cuts at the Saskatoon Dairy Producers Co-operative milk plant have nothing to do with the company’s recent merger, says corporate spokesperson Dan Wong.
“This was driven exclusively by the loss of a particular contract that we had with a major customer,” Wong said.
He claimed Dairy Producers lost the customer last fall, well before the December merger agreement with Agrifoods International Co-operative Ltd., an Alberta/British Columbia conglomerate.
Sixty full-time positions were cut, although only 33 people will be immediately unemployed. The other 27 layoffs will be determined by seniority.
Wong described the layoffs as temporary, hoping the company can find another customer for the lost production.
He said losing a customer wasn’t as dramatic an event in the past because there were many more smaller customers. But now, fewer customers buy more, so losing one is significant.
