A Galway-based healthcare multinational, Cambridge Diagnostics Ireland Ltd, is due to shed 120 jobs as it relocates manufacturing to China and Britain.
The parent company, Inverness Medical Innovations based in Massachusetts in the US, has confirmed that the company is phasing out work at its Galway plant which was opened at Mervue Industrial Estate in 1992.
The company said that there was a need to restructure its manufacturing operations due to the changing economic environment.
"In response to increased price competition, IMI must reduce the number of manufacturing operations and locate the most price-sensitive products in lower cost manufacturing environments such as China," said the company which makes pregnancy and ovulation predictor tests, and produces over 20 million units annually for export.
The company said that the price of manufacturing product had "increased significantly" at its plant in the last couple of years, and adverse currency movements between the US dollar and the euro had put costs up by 33 per cent.
IMI intends to move its Galway manufacturing operation to plants in Shanghai and Britain. It said that this would be a difficult time for its Galway employees, but it was committed to assisting them "in whatever manner" it could. The plant is non-unionised.
The company opened as Cambridge Bio-Technology Ltd in Galway in 1992 but ran into financial problems two years later. However, its 50 employees were taken on by new US owners, IMI, and it experienced significant expansion.
A workforce of 130 has already been reduced to between 110 and 120, and all jobs are expected to go by December.
Overall, 2005 has brought mixed employment news for Co Galway. Just over a month ago the medical device multinational, Boston Scientific, announced that between 200 and 300 temporary staff at its Galway plant would not have their contracts renewed.
However, 213 new jobs in several firms have been promised for Galway.