Mosgiel-based timber manufacturing plant New Zealand Wood Mouldings is laying off another 25 staff this week, its second round of redundancies in six months.
Announcing the decision to staff last Friday was "gut-wrenching", managing director Tom Whitefield said yesterday.
"It was a shock, a difficult thing for people to come to terms with. We had to do it. If we didn't do it, there wouldn't be any jobs for anyone."
Some staff had offered to take voluntary redundancy, he said.
Others would be told this week whether they had lost their jobs.
"Every attempt" would be made to assist them to find other employment.
The company, which has been operating for 14 years, machines radiata pine architectural mouldings such as window frames, doors, frames, cornices and stairs.
It has small markets in New Zealand, Australia and Asia, but the bulk of its products are exported to the United States.
The downturn in the US new home and renovation market had seen Wood Mouldings' orders drop 50% in recent months, Mr Whitefield said.
"For better or worse, we are tied closely to the US market. The market downturn has happened really quickly and there is more to come. We are caught up in . . . a global recession. We are just one of the collateral damages of that process."
In February, 28 staff were made redundant and Mr Whitefield said he thought at the time there would be no more redundancies.
"We were living in hope things would turn around. We saw a bounce after the February round [of redundancies]. We now realise it was a dead-cat bounce."
The factory will soon be down to 42 staff.
Asked if that was enough to keep operations viable long term, Mr Whitefield believed it was.
The company had "no appetite" to close.
"We're bunkering down. Now, we're going to tough it out. One of the good things is that if the US market picks up again we can recalibrate quite quickly."
However, he did not anticipate that happening until at least the second half of next year.
