More than 90 workers will be without jobs after dairy giant Fonterra yesterday announced its Dennington factory would close in November.
The company broke the news to about 100 staff but only a handful are likely to be redeployed.
It would not comment other than to confirm the site, which has housed a milk factory for 110 years, would shut.
"We have spoken to our staff this afternoon and advised them that we are closing the factory," a company spokeswoman said.
"It's important to us that we talk to our people first and we will release more information (Thursday morning)."
Frank Kelly, the site's delegate for the National Union of Workers, said staff were given just a couple of hours' notice about a meeting where they were told a lack of milk was behind the closure.
"The people on-site were notified there was a meeting at 3.30pm, the people off-shift were called and told to come in," he said. "There was no warning but the writing has been on the wall. We've only been running at about 30 per cent capacity so something was going to happen."
Mr Kelly, who was set to mark 40 years at the factory in October, said staff members were in shock.
"It's like anything, you knew something was going to happen but it's still an absolute shock," he said.
"You've got a handful of people who are probably happy to go because they're at that stage of their life but the majority of people have got to find a job somewhere."