CHOCOLATE giant Cadbury has today announced it will axe 80 Tasmanian jobs.
Unions have described the job losses as ''a sad day for workers and a terrible day for Tasmania''.
Staff at the chocolatier's Claremont factory were this morning informed of the looming cuts.
Amanda Banfield, director of Cadbury's parent company Mondelez Australia and New Zealand, said the downsizing was needed to ''better match production with demand''.
The company will from today consult with staff and unions to work through the redundancy process.
''We’re confident the majority of these will be attained via temporary contract conclusions and voluntary redundancies,'' Ms Banfield said in a statement.
AMWU state secretary John Short said the union's immediate focus was looking after workers and their families.
''This factory has been here for over 90 years,'' he said.
''Some of the people at Cadbury, their parents and their grandparents worked here. But where are their kids going to work?''
Denison independent MHR Andrew Wilkie said the sackings were a terrible blow.
''Remember this is first and foremost a human story,'' he said.
''Every one of the sacked workers is someone with a life to live and bills to pay. Many have families to support.''
Mondelez this morning insisted the job cuts could not be attributed entirely to a drop in sales.
Ms Banfield said the company was committed to its Claremont site.
''(We) will continue to invest in key technologies, people programs and efficiency improvements to set the site for a competitive future,'' she said.
It is the latest in a series of blows for the company's Tasmanian plant.
In March, Cadbury abandoned an application for a $16 million grant and scrapped plans for a multimillion-dollar Tasmanian visitor centre.
The company said at the time it was unable to satisfy criteria to unlock the funding, with the cash hinging on increasing production at the company's Claremont plant by 20 per cent.
Mr Short said the now-unallocated $16 million should go to Tasmanian industry ''to create the new jobs this state desperately needs''.