The largest employer in Co Leitrim, the wood-processing company Masonite, has been sold to Premdor of Canada. The sale by International Paper is not expected to have any major impact on the Drumsna plant, which employs some 300 people.

A spokesman said the $523 million (€601 million) sale of the Masonite businesses was part of International Paper's programme to sell more than $3 billion in assets in the wake of acquiring Champion International earlier this year and last year's merger with Union Camp Corporation. Masonite Ireland is a subsidiary of US-based Masonite.

The managing director of Masonite Ireland, Mr Jim Hoey, said it was "business as usual" at the Drumsna factory.

Premdor, which has been a long-standing customer of Masonite, manufactures and sells building products and doors to wholesale and retail dealers in four continents. It employs 8,400 people in eight countries.