A sad day for Timaru -- with hundreds of meatwork jobs potentially on the line

Alliance Group has called everyone at its Smithfield meatworks to an all-staff meeting at 11am.

It comes amid mounting speculation the company will mothball the Smithfield plant this season, and move production to Invercargill, with the loss of up to 12-hundred jobs.

Nathan Guy from the Meat Industry Association says while job losses are unfortunate, meat companies are having to adapt to changing market conditions.

He says companies have been through a lot of change and will continue to go through change, and today's decision is a commercial decision.