Andersen Ireland, the Austrian manufacturers of costume jewellery in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, has pulled out of a £20 million (€25.4 million) IDA-backed investment in neighbouring Co Clare which would have created up to 600 jobs.
Mr Barry O'Sullivan, managing director of the Rathkeale plant, said difficulties in the German economy and other continental markets were behind the decision not to proceed with the project outside Ennis. The jewellery manufacturer's other main plant is in Vienna, headquarters of parent firm Hans Andersen.
The withdrawal is a setback for IDA Ireland and for Ennis which, despite its Information Age Town status and growing population, has suffered a 10.5 per cent drop in jobs between 1989 and 1998. Mr Terence Mangan, president of Ennis Chamber of Commerce, said industries were moving to Shannon and Limerick.
"Ennis is becoming a dormitory town. I think we are all partly responsible for it. Maybe, we are not shouting loudly enough," he said.
Andersen was to be the anchor tenant for the new industrial park at Ballymaley, on the Gort road. An IDA spokesman said it was better that the decision was made now than for the firm to have made the capital expenditure and then to go bankrupt.
"It means we have to get really seriously down to getting a suitable project in Ennis because it is one town in need of a significant high-tech industry.
"Only in the last year or so are the software companies moving out of Dublin."
The project was originally announced in April 1997, by the former Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Richard Bruton, who said it was the first major overseas investment into Ennis in over 10 years.
Hans Andersen, which has been in Rathkeale for 23 years and employs 300 people, is one of Europe's largest costume jewellery manufacturers. By September, 1997, Andersen Ireland had been granted planning permission for a 220,000 sq ft custom built factory.
Mr O'Sullivan said the Rathkeale plant had the capacity to expand its workforce by up to a third and for the Ennis project to proceed, it would have been necessary to double its market very quickly. "In 1997, the general market throughout Europe looked far more positive than it does at this point in time."
Gold and silver are used in costume jewellery but it is aimed at the middle market with products ranging from £20 to £200. The firm manufactures the Pierre Lang brand of designer jewellery.
