A textiles manufacturer which turned a profit last year is to close with the loss of 50 jobs because of fears that its demise is inevitable in the face of cheaper competition from the third world.
Jodi Manufacturing, based in Duleek, Co Meath, will cease production in early summer. Workers, some on the pay-roll since the mid-1970s, will be laid off in three phases, beginning on May 9th.
The company is closing despite showing a profit last year, though it declined to provide a figure. Returns filed with the Companies Office show the profit and loss account increased by more than €400,000 in the year to the end of April 2002.
Details of a redundancy package are not being released but payments are understood to exceed statutory entitlements.
Financial manager Mr Richard Duffy said that, with cheap imports flooding the market, the firm was living "on borrowed time. We looked two or three years down the road and saw that the writing was on the wall. Running a textiles company in Ireland will become next to impossible before long. It was decided to close now when the business is in a relatively healthy financial situation rather than risk matters deteriorating."
Jodi is owned by founder Mr Tony O'Connell and a number of senior managers. Mr O'Connell, who is the major shareholder, established the company in 1968.
Staff learned of the closure at a meeting last week. Production is due to cease early in June. There is no hope of a reprieve, Mr Duffy said.
"The game is up for the Irish textiles industry. It is simply impossible to compete with the low-wage regimes of Eastern Europe and Asia."
News of the closure follows warnings that wage inflation threatens the viability of many small businesses. This week the Small Firms Association said that, with the rate of pay increase twice the European average at 6 per cent last year, many companies must cut jobs to remain competitive.
Unsustainable wage rises are the biggest challenge to the small-business sector, and to the services industry in particular, where pay inflation reached 11 per cent in 2002, the association said.
