HEINZ will no longer make tomato sauce in Australia leading to the loss of 146 jobs when it closes the doors on a factory in Victoria's north.

The company will complete its last day of production at the Girgarre factory on January 6 before moving sauce production to New Zealand.



The move will see 146 employees lose their jobs and affect three tomato growers.



Heinz announced the closure of the factory in May last year but workers received their notices at Christmas.



Heinz Australia's supply chain director Mike Robinson said the cost of making the factory competitive was too high.



"Girgarre requires millions of dollars of investment just to keep the plant going, with no likelihood of making it competitive into the future," he said.



Heinz says eligible employees have received their redundancy payments and the company has funded 10 scholarships at a local TAFE.



Heinz has also donated 10 hectares of land to the Girgarre Development Committee.



Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser Jason Hefford said the company had met its EBA responsibilities but said the redundancies represented the continuation of the Goulburn Valley's hard-luck story.



About 150 workers also lost their jobs when SPC Ardmona closed a fruit cannery in September last year.



"You take $800 or $900 a week out of 150 pay packets and it's a lot of money gone from the region," he said.

"And what kind of work are these people going to go back into, is it going to be casual, contract?"



Originally published as Out-sauced: 146 jobs go as Heinz shuts factory