The company, which opened its Australian headquarters at the Logic industrial hub in 2017, announced a factory in Nelson would be closed in coming months and replaced by a more modern operation in the Waikato region to supply cross laminated timber (CLT) to the market.

Chief executive Shane Robertson confirmed a review and consultation had been underway for a number of weeks before confirmation of the changes announced yesterday.

"I can confirm a decision has been made to scale up the New Zealand supply of CLT from XLam's new automated plant in (Wodonga) while progressively bringing the existing manual Nelson operation to a close over the next few months," he said.

"The XLam plant in Wodonga is a new, state-of-the-art advanced CLT manufacturing operation.

"It has the capacity to manufacture and export large volumes of CLT to New Zealand in a commercially sustainable way while also meeting growing demand throughout Australasia.

"This will mean more activity and jobs both directly and indirectly from the Wodonga plant including increased logistics such as freight.

"While on the one hand we are delivering positive news for our New Zealand customers and the construction sector, we have also made difficult decisions that impact our people."

XLam has guaranteed the jobs of all existing 37 employees at Nelson until July with emerging opportunities in both New Zealand and Wodonga being offered to present workers employees in the first instance.