Fonterra says its plan to slash job numbers will affect people right across the company.
The Fonterra headquarters on Princes St in central Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
The company is reducing staff numbers by 750 - which is 227 more than the number of redundancies announced in July.
Fonterra's managing director of people, culture and strategy, Maury Leyland, said many of those being made redundant were senior managers.
Ms Leyland told Morning Report the company is hoping to save $100 million a year and the co-operative saw its restructuring as an opportunity to do things better.
"Whether it be the organisation side, or the way you approach things or carry out certain activities, so that's really what we have been looking at, and what we're talking about with 750 roles affected. So a really, really tough time for our business and our people."
She said no processing staff would lose their jobs.
Listen to Maury Leyland
In July, the company said most of the job cuts it had identified at that stage in its business review would be within New Zealand, from its human resources, finance and information systems departments, and that it was likely more would follow later this year.
The dairy co-operative employs 18,000 staff worldwide, of which 11,500 are New Zealand employees.