A seafood company scaling back operations in a small Southland town says it's trying to minimize the impact on locals.

Sanford is planning to restructure its South Island operations, resulting in between 20 and 30 job losses in Bluff.

Bluff's operations will focus on salmon and white-fish processing will be moved to Timaru.

Sanford CEO,  Volker Kuntzsch told Mike Yardley a lot of workers might feel as though they're being cut loose - but that's not the case.

"We are working on a solution that will suit everybody and hopefully secure future employment for all affected staff.

Mr Kuntzsch said the company would not know how many jobs would be cut until the consultation process finished in 10 days.

The company planned to end white fish processing at the Bluff plant at the end of July.