TRALEE-BASED German manufacturing company Beru Electronics, which employs 200 people, is to transfer its main manufacturing line to its plant in Ludwigsburg in Germany.
There are fears that as many as 70 jobs could be lost, though the company has not yet given a figure.Some 70 employees at the plant are involved in manufacturing “glow plugs”, similar to spark plugs, for the automobile industry.
Twenty voluntary redundancies are already under way at the plant.
A statement from the company said there will be no job losses until 2010. Beru said it is committed to its Tralee operation, established in 1985.
The statement also detailed efforts to source new lines of work, including a concentration of Beru’s exhaust-system-sensor business in Tralee. As well as manufacture, the Tralee plant is involved in research and development.
Concern has surrounded the future of the Tralee plant with some time and a number of staff briefings have been given in private.
Con Casey of Siptu, representing the workers, said the union is meeting with management next week to discuss the contents of the statement.
“The board has decided due to the extreme deterioration of the economic situation to concentrate all quick-start glow plugs in Ludwigsburg,” the statement said.
This product transfer would be completed in early 2010, it said.
Another manufacturing line associated with glow plugs will also be transferred from Tralee.
“While the above has implications for the employment levels of the Beru Tralee plant, the board has committed to the future of the Tralee plant and will endeavour to seek new products to return the plant to profitability,” it said.
Much of Tralee’s manufacturing base has been eroded this year, with the announcement already that Amann Industries, also German owned, is to cease operation in the town with the loss of 330 jobs. Over 6,200 are on the town’s unemployment register.
Siptu has called for job support measures including subvention of energy costs, saying that manufacturing has virtually collapsed.