MELBOURNE, August 9 – More than 100 jobs are to be lost as an international food company closes its Melbourne factory with plans to move to Malaysia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ireland-based Kerry Group is to close its factory at Altona in Melbourne’s west in March 2013, with 105 production-line and office workers to be affected, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported.

The food flavouring and ingredient company says the move was intended at consolidating its manufacturing centres in the Asia-Pacific region.

A spokeswoman for Kerry Group said some of the affected employees could be offered jobs at the company’s New South Wales and Queensland operations.

“Whilst manufacturing remains a very competitive environment in Australia and international markets, these decisions enable Kerry to provide sustainable business growth by leveraging the offering at our existing sites within the region.

“Whilst Kerry will continue to invest in and expand our presence in Australia, this is a consolidation of a number of acquisitions made over recent years,” Kerry Ingredients and Flavours Asia-Pacific President Mark McCormack was quoted as saying in the report.

National Union of Workers spokeswoman Emma Kerin said the union was unsure how many Melbourne employees would be offered new roles.

“We’re still trying to confirm where jobs are going but, no matter what, it’s a bad result for the workers in Altona.

“We’ll now be focusing on redundancies and making sure that happens promptly and it happens well, and we’ll also be looking at reskilling and retraining the workers,” Kerin told AAP. – Bernama