AS THE community continues to come to grips with additional job cuts at the town's SunRice mill, the Leeton Business Chamber has weighed into the debate.
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It was announced last week a further 55 jobs would be going from the plant, leaving staff worried what their options would now be, but also whether or not they could afford to stay on in Leeton.
With such a large number of jobs facing the cut, the Leeton Business Chamber said it understood why the company had to make such a decision, but remained concerned about what impacts that would have on other job options, as well as overall business confidence in the shire.
"It's never easy to say to one person, never mind 50, that you won't have a job in a couple of months time," president Wayne Bond said.
"For the company, they lose that talent, that skill.
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"There has to be a stat somewhere that says for every family that moves out of town there's a significant flow on affect.
"It's the coffee shops, the restaurants, the supermarkets.
"All of those things are then affected any time a job is lost and people leave town. We also certainly understand the company (SunRice) has had to make tough decisions in order to maintain what it can."
Last week it was also announced Lion Dairy and Drinks, which currently owns Leeton's Berri factory, was awaiting final approval for the sale of the company as a whole to China's Mengniu Dairy Company Limited.
Lion Dairy and Drinks is already owned by a Japanese organisation, but Mr Bond was hopeful any changing of the guard would result in jobs being kept, not cut, in Leeton.
"It's indeterminate whether that is (the sale) going to be 'good' or 'bad' ... if it's going to increase the demand for their products into China, it could mean could more business for Australia," Mr Bond said.
With the drought continuing to tighten its grip, there's no doubting small business are also starting to feel the pinch.
Mr Bond said in business you always had to "ride out the good with the bad".
"Like SunRice, small business needs to also be smart about where it's placed ... I think we're seeing a bit of burnout I think in town among small business owners," Mr Bond said.
"Sometimes there are hard decisions to make.
"At the end of the day we want to see businesses staying open, but we want people to be looking after themselves."
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