{"id":406815,"date":"2026-05-01T14:22:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/406815\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:22:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:22:35","slug":"talleys-westport-fish-processing-factory-to-close-92-impacted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/406815\/","title":{"rendered":"Talley&#8217;s Westport fish processing factory to close, 92 impacted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JQDT5U_talley_s_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"647\" alt=\"Talley's Westport.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\n<p>Photo: Google Maps\n<\/p>\n<p>Talley&#8217;s Seafood will close its Westport fish processing factory, the company has confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Chief executive officer Tony Hazlett said Talley&#8217;s would consolidate its fish processing operations and the last day for the Westport site would be Friday, 15 May.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Talley&#8217;s Seafood confirms that all 92 affected staff will be offered employment opportunities, including those in roles that will remain in Westport.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The company is working closely with employees to support their transition, including opportunities across its Motueka, Blenheim, Canterbury, Timaru and Greymouth sites, as well as at sea on factory vessels,&#8221; Hazlett said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Additional support will include CV assistance, job search and training opportunities, wellbeing services, and some assistance with relocation and accommodation, where possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Talley&#8217;s said ship unloads, weigh-ins, chiller and logistics functions at the site would continue.<\/p>\n<p>Hazlett said the decision to stop processing in Westport followed a strategic review, and reflected productivity and efficiency improvements at the company.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our Westport team have made a significant contribution to Talley&#8217;s Seafood over many years,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is a difficult decision, but it reflects how our business has evolved and how we need to operate into the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The company will continue to process fish in Motueka and Timaru.<\/p>\n<p>Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne said the outcome was tough for Westport.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While it&#8217;s positive that Talley&#8217;s is offering alternative roles, the loss of processing jobs locally will still be felt across the community,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Our thoughts are with the workers and families affected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In Buller, seafood processing contributes more than $9 million to the local economy, but the impact goes well beyond that, supporting local businesses, contractors and services.<\/p>\n<p>Milne said the news came at a time when Buller was dealing with economic pressures, making the factory closure particularly challenging.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Google Maps Talley&#8217;s Seafood will close its Westport fish processing factory, the company has confirmed. Chief executive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[48,138,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-406815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-audio","tag-business","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}