Sweet farewell!

By Melissa Grant
FIFTY Nestle staff left on a high note last Friday, following an operational shake-up at the Pakenham factory.
Last September the international food giant announced that it would cease manufacturing noodles at the Racecourse Road factory in favour of new technology at its plant in Malaysia.
The loss of one of the factory’s main production lines has seen a total of 65 jobs shed, with 50 staff working their last day on Friday.
Factory manager Andrew Nooy told the News that Friday was a day of celebration as those staff had opted to take a redundancy package.
“It was a very positive day. We had a celebration and each of them got gift packs,” he said.
“It’s always nice that people make the decision to go rather than have them forced out.”
Mr Nooy said some of the employees had been at the Pakenham factory for most of their lives.
“One guy was in his 44th year,” he said.
“I know some of them personally, I’ve been here 23 or 24 years myself, so there was a lot of reminiscing.”
“It (Friday) wasn’t a sombre day it was a good day and a good time for remembering.
“I’m sure there are people today that will have fond memories of Nestle.”
Mr Nooy said it was an emotional time but added that it was heartening to see that his employees were moving on to the next phase of their lives.
“The realisation was that some of them aren’t coming back they’re starting new lives,” he said.
“One of them has his pilot’s licence and wants to start his own airline.
“It was an emotional day but it was an opportunity for them to change their career and find things they love and had always wanted to do.”
Mr Nooy said Nestle wanted the employees to be well-equipped for their life after Nestle, giving them opportunity to take up extra training before they left the company.
The majority of people had started new jobs already, he said.
Mr Nooy said the Pakenham factory would now focus on producing frozen goods.
He said Nestle had recently injected $6 million to expand the factory’s frozen goods line and would continue to pump more money to ensure the factory became a site of excellence for frozen foods.