Bourns Electronics Ireland, the components manufacturer, yesterday told 160 workers at its Mahon plant in Cork their jobs are to be relocated to Mexico and Costa Rica.
Last August, Bourns, which established its Mahon base 21 years ago, laid off more than 60 employees, citing the downturn in world markets, and in 1999, 200 jobs were lost when the company closed its network division. At peak numbers, Bourns employed over 500 general operatives. In yesterday's announcement, management told employees, mainly members of SIPTU, that Mexico and Costa Rica had the capacity to produce the IT components for the telecom, automotive and industrial sectors. The reason given was "unremitting downward price pressure from global competition". The company aims to complete the transfer over the coming months.
Bourns said it would organise a hub operation at the plant which would include customised manufacturing, European finance and warehousing as well as customer support and product development engineering. Initially, the remaining 70 employees will be employed in the operation.