Bowron face more restructuring

The Christchurch-based sheepskin tannery G L Bowron is facing its fourth round of restructuring since 2003. 120 staff, including 80 production line workers will be asked to take redundancy. The Japanese-owned company currently employ 335 staff, as 75 workers were laid off earlier this year. Bowron human resources manager Sue Hurst stated that the company were significantly restructuring their sheepskin tanning operation and were proposing to cut about 120 jobs at their suburban Woolston plant by the end of September. Restructuring proposals affected all departments from senior management to about 80 process workers, she said. 'The issues facing the company are the continuing strength of the New Zealand dollar along with increased competition from low labour-cost countries.' According to the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, the downsizing is inevitable, given the difficult conditions in which it has been operating. Peter Townsend, ceo of the Chamber of Commerce, says he understands how the company have become the victim of a very volatile and unusually high dollar in recent years.