Lowe Alpine, the Tullamore-based manufacturer of outdoor clothing, is to phase out its rucksack making operations while restructuring its `technical' clothes operations.

The company, located at the Sragh Industrial Estate, announced yesterday that its overall employee numbers would increase from 260 to 275 as it concentrated on its fleece-clothing range, which includes jackets and thermal legwear. But there will be an initial 19 redundancies in the rucksacks division, which has experienced increased competition from foreign competitors in its European market. "The company informed all its workers today that it was initially offering terms to achieve this reduction through a voluntary redundancy programme.

"Consultations on this will be undertaken with the workers and their representatives over the coming weeks," Mr Michael Coyne, production manager at Lowe Alpine, said in a written statement.

Last September, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, announced that a further 30 jobs would be created in an IDA-Ireland assisted expansion programme. An IDA spokesman said that the 20-year-old company, which was the subject of a £14 million management buyout from its previous owners, was concentrating on a high growth area and had been moving people into that sector since last summer.

The present ownership, including a British venture capital group, is undergoing "a substantial capital development programme involving construction of some new facilities and technology in the plant", the company said.

Mr Coyne told the Tullamore Tribune that the investment would be between £750,000 and £1 million. The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, who is a TD for the area, said it was unfortunate that there were to be an initial 19 redundancies. A spokesman for Lowe Alpine was unavailable for comment yesterday.