The managing director of a tube-manufacturing plant that has operated in Co Tipperary for the past 30 years has blamed the "uncompetitiveness" of the Irish economy for the closure of the business with the loss of 28 jobs.
Tubex Ltd, based in the Gortlandroe Industrial Estate, Nenagh, is to close from the end of September. The company says it will now concentrate its plastic tube production in one European site.
The managing director of the company, Bryan Smyth, said it was with "deep regret" that the company had decided to close the factory.
At its peak, the company employed 150 people in three factories here. But due to the increasingly global nature of the competition for business, the company said it has been forced to close a factory in Lisboney, Nenagh, in 2001, and a second factory in Portroe, Co Tipperary, in July 2003.
"The closure has arisen due to the increasing uncompetitiveness of the Irish economy for manufacturing industry," Mr Smyth said in a press statement yesterday.
"These difficulties have continued to be exacerbated by rising costs for plastic, labour and energy - three of the company's largest costs - at a time when customers are seeking ongoing price reductions and are sourcing tubes from China, India and the Far East."
"The company will now enter into discussions with Siptu and non-union staff to discuss the terms of the closure."
Mr Smyth said all 28 employees of the factory had been informed of the decision by local management.
Tubex, a subsidiary of a German company, Tubex Holdings GmbH, has operated in Ireland since 1978, manufacturing both plastic and collapsible aluminium tubes.
Since 2003, the company has operated from a factory in Nenagh that, at its peak, employed 35 people.