150 jobs go as two factories shut
Around 150 jobs are to be axed over the next year with the closure of two manufacturing plants in the north-west, it emerged today.
Cassette maker Saehan Media will end operations in Sligo with the loss of 91, while more than 60 jobs are to go at the renowned Magee clothing company after the firm said high costs had forced it to make cuts.
Saehan Media Ireland Ltd, which makes video and audio tapes, will shut its doors in April after making losses of €10m last year. This was on the back of losses of €2.4m in 2004.
Magee, a high quality clothing firm, will stop manufacturing in Donegal by June 2007, but design, marketing and administration staff will be kept on, along with retail staff at the local store.
A spokesman for Saehan Media blamed the rapid increase in demand for DVDs for the move. The market for videotape and cassettes was in steep decline, he said, with demand dropping by 30% last year and a further drop of 40% expected this year.
“In recent years we have reduced our workforce and introduced changes in the plant to try and remain profitable,” he went on.
“However, the market for videotape has collapsed and our losses at the Sligo factory are simply going to keep rising. We are forced to accept that closure is the only remaining option.”
Employees at the Hazelwood factory were told today that the plant would close on April 28.
Management thanked staff for their contribution and commitment to the factory over the past 15 years and said negotiations would begin immediately on redundancy packages.
Korean-based parent company Saehan Media, which has had a presence in Sligo since 1991, is one of the world’s top suppliers of magnetic tape. At its height it employed 500 people in the town.
Magee chairman Lynn Temple said the decision to end production by June 2007 was due to the high cost of manufacturing clothing in Ireland.
“The skill and experience of our staff has been a big part of Magee’s success and it has always been our ethos to create employment at home in Donegal,” she said.
“However, the economics of the marketplace means that this is no longer possible in clothing manufacturing.”
Magee will continue to base its administration, design and marketing in Donegal Town, where it was founded in 1866, and the move will not affect the Magee weaving operation, which employs 60 people, or the Magee shops.
Magee will continue to employ around 130 people in Donegal Town after the redundancies, including 30 people in its local retail outlet.
The losses bring to more than 550 the number of jobs lost around the country so far this year, with the manufacturing sector hardest hit.
