THE FUTURE of the Arlington Avon plant in Portarlington, Co Laois, is in doubt.
The company, which employs about 300 people and makes costume jewellery, has written to all employees telling them the future of the plant is under review. The review is being conducted at Avon's headquarters in the United States and an announcement is likely to be made on Wednesday.
Another US company, Universal Foods Corporation, has said it is closing its frozen food facility in Midleton, Co Cork, and laying off 65 people.
Arlington Avon refused to comment yesterday on the likely job losses among its workers, although other sources said the outlook was bleak.
The plant is the largest employer in the town and its loss would be a significant blow following the closure of the Butler engineering plant in 1996, when 130 people were laid off.
A spokesman for the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, said she had met management at the company and was monitoring the situation closely. A spokesman for IDA Ireland said senior executives would meet management at the company next week.
Most of the staff at the plant, who are represented by SIPTU, are women, and many have been there for a long time.
The company has been in the Republic for more than 20 years, but the plant has been under pressure for some years as sales in its main European markets have declined.
It is estimated that less than 10 per cent of Avon's turnover worldwide now comes from jewellery. This is because several years ago the company decided to focus most of its attention on personal care products and ornaments.
According to sources, the plant produced eight million units in 1991, but this had dropped to 2.6 million units last year. Most of the company's competitors in the costume jewellery market operate from low-cost labour regions in Asia or Africa.
It is understood the company has concluded that the Port arlington operation cannot compete in this environment.
The local Fianna Fail TD, Mr John Moloney, said he was refusing to accept that the plant could close because it would cause utter devastation, not only in the Portarlington area but in many parts of Laois and Offaly.
"I am not going to use that word because we have been told nothing officially and until I am told, I refuse to believe it. It would create severe despondency in this area if anything happened," he said.
His Fine Gael colleague, Mr Charles Flanagan TD, said that if the plant were to close it would devastate the area, which already has an umemployment problem stretching back to the 1980s.
"There are over 1,000 people who are unemployed in the small town of Portarlington and more than 1,000 in Portlaoise. Ironically, the council had invited the IDA to come and speak to us on Monday next and explain why we are not getting any benefits from rising employment," he said.
Local people in the town pointed out that the plant, which at one time employed 1,000 people, had been placed there to soften the loss of ESB and Bord na Mona jobs and the closure of Odlums mills in the 1980s.
"If this happens we will see the wives and daughters of unemployed people who got jobs there to boost the local economy facing the dole queues themselves," said one local shopkeeper.