Job offer for poultry man

Press, 19 February 1988, Page 5

Job offer for poultry man

By

TONY SMITH

in Nelson

A Nelson poultry farmer whose hatchery has had to shut after the closing of the Tendabird poultry factory has been offered a job in Christchurch by the company which owned the factory. Mr Murray Sutton, whose, family ran the Viewlands hatchery at Mapua for 40 years, was to fly to Christchurch today to consider a stock management supervisor’s position with General Foods at its Hornby poultry complex.

Mr Sutton was one of five farmers in the Nelson region forced to cease operations after Tegal Poultry, Ltd, a subsidiary of General Foods, announced its intention to close the Tendabird plant at the Waitaki International freezing works.

The farmers have been offered compensation, provided they agree not to produce chickens for a five-year moratorium period, and do not comment publicly on the settlement. The member of Parliament for Tasman, Mr Ken Shirley, has described the conditions as “tantamount to blackmail” and the Nelson Bays Regional Development Council has lodged a complaint of restrictive trade practices with the Commerce Commission. Mr Sutton was reluctant to comment on the compensation aspects yesterday but said he had been

offered a job by General Foods and was “going down to have a look.” He said it was a wrench to close the hatchery, the last of its type in the Nelson-Marlborough region. The last batch of 15,000 chickens was dispatched this week. “The hatchery has been switched off for the first time in seven years,” Mr Sutton said. “It is like a mortuary down there now.” The business was established 40 years ago by his father, Mr Richmond Sutton, who has been in partnership with his son since 1980. "It has been a profitable business throughout but, through no fault of our own for sheer economic reasons a bigger company has decided it is best to do it from Christchurch.” At, peak production, the Mapua hatchery produced 12,000 meat chickens a week, or 600,000 a year. General Foods’ Christchurch plant produces 100,000 a week. The Suttons employed eight staff at Viewlands, including some parttimers who worked up to 30 hours a week. One person had been employed for 14 years and several others had spent about six years at the hatchery. All were Mapua residents, some of whom had indicated they would take seasonal jobs in the fruit fields and packhouses, Mr Sutton said.