Strathmerton cheese factory to close

A phased closure of the factory is expected to be complete by mid-2026.

Bega Cheese chief executive officer Pete Findlay told Dairy News Australia the decision to close the Strathmerton plant was not taken lightly, and that details around time frames for redundancies were still being developed.

“Starting from the 12th of May, we’ll be holding individual sessions or meetings with every single employee, and they’ll be done with an HR representative and the site management,” he said.

“We’ll be looking at all of those re-employment options with the individual. We’ll be looking at their own individual needs and own individual separation requirements and packages.”

The cheese processing and packaging operations at Strathmerton will be moved into Bega’s existing site at Ridge St, Bega, in NSW.

Meanwhile, the company will continue to operate five remaining plants across Victoria, at Tatura, Morwell, Chelsea, Koroit and Port Melbourne.

Mr Findlay said the closure of the Strathmerton plant will have no impact on the company’s nearby Tatura factory.

“We’d like to look at options there, but similarly if people were going to shift to anywhere in the future, to where one of our other sites are, we would look into that as well,” he said.

“But that really needs to be done on an individual basis.”

Mr Findlay expected it will take a further six to eight weeks for the company to get a better idea of how it can transition with the least impact on employees who are made redundant.

“We’re still working out some of the detail, but we thought it was important to give people a long as possible transition to be able to consult with them as soon as we made the decision,” he said.

“We envisage the first phase will be towards the end of this calendar year, as we said in the statement to the team last night, and then the remainder will probably happen over another couple of phases over the first half of the calendar year next year.”

He also confirmed the closure will have no effect on local dairy suppliers.

“In fact, we would love farmers to sell us more milk,” he said.

“We would love more milk. I think most dairy places in Australia want more milk, so it will have no impact on the dairy industry whatsoever.”

Mr Findlay said 100 new positions will be created at the company’s head plant in Bega.

However, those positions will not be automatically allocated to employees at the Strathmerton plant.

“We’ll need to work through the skill requirements and whether people want to shift. But we would love to offer people re-employment within our organisation,” he said.

“That would obviously be a really good outcome, so we’ll continue to work with people on that basis.”

The company expects the closure of the Strathmerton plant will deliver $30 million a year in savings by reducing duplication and reducing fixed costs.

Moira Shire Council chair administrator Graeme Emonson said the news of the closure of the plant was devastating for the community.

“With 300 local jobs at risk, our hearts go out to the workers and their families who are facing this incredibly challenging time,” Dr Emonson said.

“We want them to know that they are not alone — the entire Moira Shire community stands with them.

“We are actively working to understand the full impact of this announcement and we have reached out to Bega to seek further clarity on the staged closure and what has been communicated and offered to employees.

“We urge the Bega Group as a responsible corporate citizen to be generous in how it assists employees with this news and transition.

“We will be working closely with the local community to understand and manage the impacts to flow from the closure.

“We will also be calling on both the state and federal governments for immediate and long-term support during this transition period.

“This includes securing economic transition funding, providing retraining and redeployment opportunities for impacted employees, and working to attract investment that will help create new local job opportunities.

“Our goal is clear: local jobs created to replace local jobs lost,” he said.

“We will do everything in our power to support the affected workers and their families, while also working to strengthen our community and ensure long-term economic stability.

“We are fully focused on navigating this difficult time and will continue to engage with all levels of government and our community to develop practical solutions.

“Our immediate focus is to develop a clear plan to mitigate the impact of this closure and ensure those who are affected are supported.”

A Victorian Government spokesperson said the government will offer support to impacted workers through the Jobs Victoria Local Employment Transition Service.

“We appreciate this is a difficult time for Bega workers and their families following the company's announcement that it will close one of its Victorian facilities in Strathmerton next year,” the spokesperson said.

“This service supports people being relocated or during a retrenchment process with advice and information to assist them in finding a new job or planning their next steps.”

Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell said he will work closely with the Strathmerton community and Moira Shire Council in the wake of the announcement.

“While Strathmerton will continue operations for at least a year, this is a difficult time for the employees and their families,” Mr Birrell said.

He was critical that Federal Government policies are reducing confidence in the agricultural sector in northern Victoria.

“While Bega says it will offer redeployment where possible, the consolidation of operations in NSW will have a significant impact on Strathmerton and Moira Shire,” Mr Birrell said.

“The Albanese Government needs to support workers and the community in the short term and also take a hard look at policy settings that make food processing more difficult.

“The future availability of water in northern Victoria is a significant factor in operational decisions, agribusinesses and food processors deserve greater transparency, and clear commitments to sustainable water policy.”

Victorian Farmers Federation Water Council chair Andrew Leahy said the Strathmerton plant was built by Kraft in the 1990s during a boom in milk production and dairy processing.

“By the early 2000s milk production was more than three billion litres across the Murray Dairy region. Now it’s around 1.7 billion litres,” Mr Leahy said.

He blamed government water policy and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“VFF continually told the Commonwealth that taking water away from farmers will reduce milk flow, which reduces milk processing capacity and will ultimately cost jobs.

“Unfortunately, that is 300 jobs in Strathmerton that are now paying the price.

“The Federal Government likes to deflect the issue and blame years of drought in the 2000s, and while that had an impact, we have an independent report commissioned by the Victorian Government in 2022 that found 400 million litres less in milk production was the result of the basin plan alone.

“The basin plan is causing long-term economic loss in the regions and our new Federal Government needs to think carefully before taking more water.”