Celestica Technologies, the electronics manufacturing services company based in Swords, Co. Dublin, is to cut 450 jobs from its workforce of 900.
A statement issued by Celestica this morning said that because of the declining market for its largest customer Motorola and the subsequent decline in demand for mobile phone components, the company had no choice but to reduce its workforce.
"In the case of Celestica's operation in Ireland, its largest customer, Motorola, has reacted to softening end-markets due to the current economic climate by significantly decreasing production volumes of its mobile phones which are manufactured at the Swords facility," the statement said.
"As a result Celestica has announced that it is calling for up to 450 voluntary redundancies after having taken every measure possible to save these jobs at the Irish plant."
Celestica, which employs over 900 highly skilled people in the County Dublin facility, will now enter into a thirty-day consultative period with a view to reducing that number to 500.
"The continuing downturn in global economies has meant that our largest customer, Motorola, has experienced significant reduction in demand for some of their mobile phone products," Mr Noel Fogarty, General Manager of Celestica in Ireland said this morning.
"To this end we will be discontinuing the production of Motorola mobile phones by the end of the year with the subsequent reduction in the workforce.
"While we are looking for 450 voluntary redundancies Celestica remains totally committed to its Irish facility and the company will continue to employ almost 500 staff here in Swords."
The cut-backs are part of a global restructuring plan previously announced by Celestica based on the severe downturn in technology manufacturing.