By Leah McLennan of AAP

Food and beverage group National Foods is closing down two of its manufacturing plants, resulting in 280 job losses in NSW and Victoria.

The company said on Tuesday it would close its Wetherill Park site in Sydney's southwest by March 2012 and its Cobden site in Victoria by December.


Meanwhile, it plans to upgrade its Baulkham Hills site in Sydney's northwest and its Morwell plant in Victoria.

"There will be 280 redundancies associated with the changes, which will take effect progressively until March 2012," National Foods said in a statement.

National Foods, owned by Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings Company Ltd, produces milk, yoghurt, juice and cheese products under brands such as Big M, Yoplait, Fruche, Berri and Coon.

In 2008 the company bought Dairy Farmers, which makes its own branded milk.

National Foods said the decision to close two plants comes after a review of the dairy operations following the group's acquisition of the Dairy Farmers business.

"The review identified that it was not sustainable to have four sites producing fresh and longer-life dairy foods varieties," it said.

National Foods director Arthur Murphy said any decision resulting in job losses was taken extremely seriously.

"Today's announcement is about ensuring we remain a sustainable and viable operator in the dairy foods market today and in the future," he said.

The Transport Workers' Union of NSW (TWU) said the closure of the Wetherill Park plant could be linked to deregulation in the milk industry.

It said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) bears responsibility for the lost jobs, because it had approved Kirin's takeover of Dairy Farmers, knowing that sackings were the inevitable result of conglomerates rationalising their operations.

"The TWU warned the ACCC in 2008 that limited divestitures by Kirin would be insufficient to protect milk workers' jobs at National Foods," TWU secretary Wayne Forno said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The ACCC refused to heed that warning. Now we see the awful consequences of business practices that disregard the importance of local community and family life."

©2010AAP