High production costs in Ireland are likely to lead to 360 workers losing their jobs in the coming weeks. Two factories owned by an Asian conglomerate will close in December.
Comerama Textile Mills, Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, has been on a two-day week since last Wednesday. The plant is due to shut down on December 6th with no guarantee it will reopen. The 160 workers have received no commitment as to their futures.
A sister plant in Gweedore, Co Donegal, will continue on a three-day week until it closes its doors on December 1st. Situated in the Ballybeg Industrial Estate, it employs 200 people.
A worldwide review of the group's operations will be implemented after Christmas, and until then the workers will not know their fate.
Workers at Comerama in Castlecomer have been told by management that production costs in Ireland for yarn and wool are six times higher than in India and Pakistan, where the parent company, Indorama Inc. is located.
Employees in Castlecomer were put on a three-day week in June. This resulted in a 35 per cent reduction in group operations. A record volume of stock, 800 tonnes, is lying in the factory, waiting for a buyer. It is believed that a worldwide slump in demand for its main products, Treira wool and Lycra yarns, is responsible for the crisis.
In June the company issued a statement saying that it was haemorrhaging badly from a main artery and had been unable to develop sufficient new product volume to compensate for general lack of demand.