The John Player cigarette manufacturing plant in Dublin will close with the loss of 90 jobs, it was announced yesterday. The majority of employees will be laid off in February 2005.
As the manufacturing operation moves to Nottingham, England, 58 employees in the marketing, sales and finance sections will remain in Dublin.
A spokeswoman for John Player & Sons said the closure was not because of the smoking ban in the State but instead due to restructuring of the parent company's Europe operation.
Yesterday, SIPTU, one of the unions representing employees at the plant, said workers were shocked at the news. Ms Anne Speed, the branch secretary, said unions would be seeking an early meeting with management to discuss the implications of the decision for staff.
There would be 75 redundancies in Febuary and 15 in April, she said. "We have questioned the "tight" February deadline, given the problems workers face in finding alternative employment in the manufacturing sector," Ms Speed said.
"Today's news comes as a big blow to the workers and the community, " she added.The company spokeswoman said: "It is unfortunate that the announcement comes so close to Christmas but we wanted to tell employees as soon as possible." She said the company will assist staff in looking for new jobs and a "relocation to Nottingham" might be possible.
The factory makes John Player Blue King Size and Superking and produces around 32 million cigarettes a week. Distribution of Marlborough cigarettes in Ireland is also organised from the Dublin plant.
The company's manufacturing operation in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, now known as Imperial Tobacco Mullingar, will not be affected.
The spokeswoman said that following a recent acquisition in Germany, Imperial needed to enhance efficiency and so it was decided to concentrate the Europe manufacturing process in the larger plants in England, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands.
John Player & Sons has been in Ireland since 1924.