Pink Snack and Time Out to go amid job uncertainty at Cadbury

Mondelez Ireland (who own Cadbury) has also announced plans to close a Trident plant in Tallaght, where components for chewing gum are made. That will result in the loss of 62 jobs, including 17 contract roles.

Phil Hodges, a senior manager in Mondelez International, said chocolate production in thefactories was twice as expensive as other countries.

“Our chocolate production costs in Ireland are currently more than twice that of Mondelez factories in other locations, and we have to become competitive if we are to strengthen for the future,” he said.

“Our gum ingredient factory in Tallaght faces too many production cost challenges to be sustainable and, following the development of new, superior technology which is only suited for co-location with a finished gum plant, regrettably we see no alternative to the proposal to close this plant.”

The SIPTU trade union has said the news about Cadbury is a “bombshell” and the union is also claiming the firm is planning to move production from Coolock to Poland.

SIPTU Organiser Michelle Quinn said: “Our members in the Tallaght plant were shocked at the proposal from management that it should close in March 2016 due to gum base production being moved to Poland.

“We will seek to explore ways of removing the need for the closure and in the event that redundancies do take place that the timeframe be moved out beyond 2016.”

SIPTU said the Tallaght plant has a highly skilled and committed workforce.

“The threatened closure of this plant, along with the Mondelez Ireland announcement that it is seeking to cut 160 jobs at other plants amounts to a dark day for manufacturing in Ireland. For many years Cadburys has been an iconic brand supporting quality Irish jobs and the impact of these job losses will severely impact local communities,” Ms Quinn said.

Trade union Unite, which represents around 400 workers at the Cadbury plants in Dublin and Rathmore, also said it would meet management over the cuts.

The union’s regional coordinating officer Richie Browne said: “Cadbury’s is a long-established employer, and the jobs it provides in both Rathmore and Coolock are vital to those communities and the economy. Today’s announcement was unexpected, and our members are both shocked and angry.

“Our efforts will be focused on minimising the number of any redundancies and securing the best possible terms for the workers affected.”

Mondelez Ireland said that is not the case and their recent €11.7m investment at Cadbury in Dublin proves its long term commitment to Ireland.

Mondelez Ireland is now engaging with unions on a full consultation process.