In a statement yesterday, Westland chief executive Toni Brendish would not speculate on how many, or what positions might be affected, until the review was completed and any affected staff informed.
The review throughout the group, which includes Westland Milk Products, Westland Shanghai and EasiYo, was scheduled for completion by the end of this month. It was likely it would result in some redundancies, Ms Brendish said.
It was part of an overall programme to gain efficiencies and reduce costs to help restore the company to an ''industry competitive position'' and provide shareholders with sustainable returns.
Westland's financial performance came under fire last year, with a reported net loss after tax of $14.5million for the financial year ended July 31.
At the annual meeting in late November, chairman Matt O'Regan acknowledged Westland's low payout of $3.62, topped up from equity to a final payout of $3.88, was ''beyond disappointing'', below break-even point for farmers and represented a failure of the company's goal to be industry competitive.
Ms Brendish, who took over the helm of New Zealand's second largest dairy co-operative in September last year, said current payout predictions, while higher than for the past two seasons, were still not where shareholders needed them to be and, for some, would still not be sustainable. ''We need to get our group back to returning top value to shareholders,'' she said.
In December, Westland raised its payout prediction for the 2016-17 season to a range of $5.50 to $5.90 per kilo of milk solids.
That was estimated to produce a net return to shareholders, after retained earnings, of $5.30 to $5.70 kg/ms.
The group had the capital investment, technical expertise, quality products and resources to recover from last year's loss and get back to paying shareholders a competitive payout, Ms Brendish said. But its current structure was not set up in the best way to deliver the results it wanted to achieve.
Westland would not make any further statements until the review was complete and any impacted staff informed.
Meanwhile, Westland director Sven Koops has resigned from the board, after just two months, for personal reasons.
Dr Koops, a Canterbury dairy farmer with a background in dairy business roles, was appointed at last year's annual meeting.
In a statement, Mr O'Regan said the board wished him well for his future endeavours and thanked him for his service.
There were options on how to fill the vacancy, which the board would consider and advise shareholders accordingly, he said.