Around 160 jobs are to be lost with the closure of frozen food retailer Iceland's Irish stores, it was confirmed today.
Following sustained substantial losses, the firm said six shops in Dublin and one outlet in Letterkenny, Donegal would close by the end of the week.
Iceland said it could no longer cope with losing so much money and could see no sign of a recovery. "When we left the business four years ago the Republic of Ireland was profitable but when we came back in February it was losing a lot of money," a spokeswoman for Iceland said.
"We have spent six months looking at it and have come to the conclusion that it is not possible for us to turn this around." Management are currently trying to find a buyer for the whole or part of the business.
They also stressed they were looking at a number of options to secure jobs for as many employees as possible. The outlets are due to close by the end of the week but it is understood staff were only informed of the development in the last 24 hours.
"Following the takeover of Iceland Frozen Foods in February, the business was found to be in a very poor state financially and also losing a substantial amount of money," the company said in a statement.
"Our operation in the Republic of Ireland is losing money and we can see no prospect of that changing. We cannot afford to sustain those losses any longer and have reluctantly decided we have no alternative other than to cease trading."
In February, Iceland was bought by the Baugar investment group, the UK's fifth-largest food retailer, which has already laid off a quarter of the company's British-based staff.