Staff have been called to the plant, which is closed for the season, for a meeting this morning, and New Zealand Meat Workers Union president Mike Nahu said PPCS would be putting a proposal to staff.
A cloud also hangs over the Dunedin company's Burnside venison processing facility, with speculation it could close and relocate to Finegand in Balclutha with the loss of 100 jobs.
New Zealand Meat Workers Union Otago-Southland secretary Gary Davis said in an interview he had no indication change was looming at any plant in the South.
PPCS has made no secret it was addressing excess processing capacity through its right-sizing programme, having already closed a Waikato deer processing plant and a lambskin processing facility in South Otago.
The company was not providing details yesterday other than to confirm it was evaluating its processing capacity and plant configuration.
Previously, chief executive Keith Cooper has identified Otago and Southland and the East Coast of the North Island as areas of excess capacity.
Drought on the East Coast has decimated sheep numbers, while land use change in the South from sheep and beef to dairy has reduced the number of lambs available for slaughter.
PPCS has predicted the national farmed-deer herd would fall below 500,000 by next year and the number of lambs available for slaughter would fall 1.4 million in the next three years.
At the company's annual meeting in March, Mr Cooper said the company planned to make better use of its multi-species plants to give greater efficiency, smooth the seasonal nature of processing and allow the company to offer longer employment options.
Retaining and finding staff has become an issue for the meat industry during a tight employment environment.
The country's largest meat processor, PPCS operates 12 plants in the South Island and 13 in the North Island and employs about 9000 staff at the peak of the processing season.
It handles a third of the country's beef and lamb exports and over half its venison exports.
During talks on creating a meat mega company, it was widely accepted the industry had about five or six too many meat processing plants.
While plant rationalisation may be a wise business choice, co-operative shareholders are concerned the loss of capacity could make it harder to get stock killed, especially in a dry season like this one.
Farmers have faced long delays getting space at all companies, especially for ewes, as feed disappeared due to the dry weather, putting pressure on farmers to quit animals.
PPCS has focused on restoring its financial strength after reporting a $48 million loss before tax last year but showed signs of improvement with an $11.2 million profit after tax for the six months to February 29.
