The demolition of several departments of the Alliance Group's Mataura plant, including the mutton slaughterboard, has finished.
Plant manager Tony Gilder said Wanganui firm Jurgens Demolition started the work in February.
Mutton processing is being shifted to the co-operative's Lorneville plant. The Mataura plant now processes beef only.
The former sheep yards and the rendering and fellmongery departments had also been demolished, Mr Gilder said.
The plant would finish processing beef for the season next week then shut down for two months to enable the demolition work to be completed, he said.
He hoped that would take two to three months.
The demolition crew had had three stoppages since it started work in early February because it was demolishing plant faster than the company could re-route services to make way for the work, he said.
The last stoppage, of four weeks, was in mid-May to mid-June, Mr Gilder said.
''They actually pulled it down at a faster rate than we expected them to.''
Jurgens Demolition co-manager Aaron Jurgens said the company still had a sizeable chunk of work to do.
A section of the main building was still to be demolished, as well as the chilling facilities.
