HASBRO Ireland, the Waterford-based toy and game manufacturer, has announced the creation of 60 extra jobs as the company celebrated 20 years of operation in Ireland.

The plant, which currently employs more than 500 people, is expanding production as a result of the closure next month of the manufacturing division of the British company, Waddington Games, which Hasbro acquired in 1995. Approximately 250 jobs will be lost at Waddington, which is the fifth European factory closure in a five-year rationalisation programme by the US-based Hasbro group.

Mr Pat Gilhooly, managing director of Hasbro Ireland, said that more than 80 per cent of the Waddington work would be transferred to Waterford. The plant, which is highly automated, has trebled in size since 1986 and produces up to 20 million games units a year for export.

Mr Gilhooly said it was now the biggest of the three Hasbro European plants and it had got the extra business because it was cost competitive. The plant has a range of 450 different products in up to 25 languages for 31 markets and has pioneered a number of innovative processes and systems.

While some of its products are familiar household names, like Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, the highly-competitive toy and game industry requires the constant introduction of new products - often linked to the release of major films such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Batman and others.

Mr Al Verecchia, the president of global operations for the Hasbro Corporation, said more than 25 per cent of annual production was brand new. While the Irish plant was not the largest in the group, it was arguably the most efficient and well-run. Flexibility of production systems had been a key to its success.

Mr Gilhooly said that Hasbro had received almost £5 million in grants since 1977. "We believe that this investment has paid good returns for the Irish taxpayer by way of over £100 million in wages and taxes alone," he added. The company is planning to progressively source all its injection moulds in Ireland.