Barlo, the engineering group, has completed the reorganisation of its Newbridge operations, including the cessation of its rope and twine manufacturing with the loss of 40 jobs.

Agreement has been reached with the unions and manufacturing will cease at the end of this month. The plant and machinery are to be sold. The redundancy costs have not yet been deduced, according to a Barlo spokesman.

The reorganisation also includes the merging of the Sealcon and Irish Ropes strapping activities into a new company, Barlo Packaging, which will initially employ 80 people. That is the existing employment force in the two companies but employment is expected to grow over the next four years. The reorganisation includes the sale of Irish Ropes' agricultural trading activities to a subsidiary of British Polythene Industries, the sale of its site in the centre of Newbridge for £6.8 million (#8.6 million), and the settlement of an insurance claim arising as a result of a fire. Barlo said the net profit from these transactions would be dealt with as an exceptional gain in this year's accounts. This has not been quantified but is expected to be greater than the £1.7 million estimated by the company last November.

Barlo believes the reorganisation will "considerably strengthen its position in the dairy spread containers and strapping businesses which it is retaining". Barlo said it continued to be well positioned in both its sheet plastics and radiator businesses to achieve satisfactory growth. The proceeds from the sale of the Newbridge site will mainly be used to meet the cost of the premises, the redundancies and other capital projects.