Employees at a loss after Canberra bakery announces closure

At the age of 55, Paul Cochrane is preparing to head back into the classroom and retrain for a different job.

He’s among 47 Canberrans who have been left at a loss after national food giant Goodman Fielder suddenly announced it would be shutting its local bread factory, Buttercups Bakeries in Fyshwick, and moving production to western Sydney.

Cooking was all Paul knew for years, first in the Australian Army’s kitchen from the age of 17, and then those of several Sydney boarding schools, including Scots College.

“I moved down to Queanbeyan and did removals for a while, but I was involved in a truck crash and needed a new career,” he says.

An advertisement for a job at Buttercups Bakeries “just happened to come up at the right time”. The facility produces bread for brands like Buttercup, Helga, Wonder White and Freya’s, to name just a few.

Paul was employed on a casual basis for two years, but ended up becoming a well-respected member of the full-time staff, a position that’s even sent him on excursions to the company’s Darwin bakery.

“We’re a small factory, so there’s only 12 people on a shift, and we all know each other,” he says. ”It’s a really good friendship. We’re sort of a family.”

Paul is one of the loaf slicers, operating the machine that turns a loaf of bread into proverbially one of the world’s best things. He estimates that when he started work there, the factory was churning out about 34,000 fresh loaves a day.

“Production has gone down over the years for sure,” he says, and puts it down to an increased number of rivals such as Bakers Delight and Three Mills Bakery.

“Most of our product goes to Sydney, but when I started, we were doing about 15,000 loaves for Canberra, but now we’re only doing about 8500.”

He and his colleagues never saw this week’s announcement coming. Even months ago, when Paul – as the delegate for the United Workers’ Union (UWU) – was engaging with company executives in Sydney on enterprise bargaining agreements, there were no hints.

“Why didn’t they give us six, maybe 12 months’ notice? We’ve got a couple of people who have just bought a house, and all of a sudden, they’ve been told they’re out of work in a month.”

Goodman Fielder didn’t directly reply to a question on how much notice employees had been given, but in a statement, said it was “consulting with staff at its Canberra bakery regarding operational changes to manufacturing at the site”.

“Goodman Fielder plans to relocate loaf and garlic bread manufacturing from its Canberra bakery to its larger Moorebank site in western Sydney, as part of a staged closure of the Canberra site from June 30th to July 26th, 2024,” the statement read.

“The Canberra site will maintain a supply chain and distribution facility as part of Goodman Fielder’s continuing commitment to maintain daily fresh delivery of its baked products in the region.”

Managing director Matt Albion said it was a “difficult but necessary” decision.

“This is a key component in ensuring we can minimise passing through higher costs to our consumers while also continuing to deliver consistent, high-quality baked products through our daily fresh delivery model,” he said.

“We understand the impact these announcements can have on our people at the Canberra site and our immediate priority is to ensure that they are supported through this process.

“We will make every effort to provide redeployment options at other Goodman Fielder sites and employees impacted by this proposal will receive their full redundancy provisions as well as an employee assistance program and career support.”

Each employee will receive three weeks of pay for every year they’ve worked at Buttercups Bakery as a redundancy payment.

The UWU also arranged for several factory members to meet officials from the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) and ACT Health to learn about training and employment opportunities.

Paul says it was a “really good day” and many members left feeling more comfortable about the future.

“Some people are lucky, like myself, in that we have a bit of time, but plenty of others don’t have that, and will only get so much redundancy before that’s it.”

At 55, and too young to retire, Paul is considering a career in aged care for the next five to 10 years. For this, he’ll have to study at CIT.

“I can’t go out doing a lot of manual labour work, but I’m happy to communicate with people.”

His last bakery shift is on 26 July. As for whether the band will ever get back together: “I don’t know. Everyone’s got to go their own way now.”