A Dublin computer company, Applied Magnetics, is to close with the loss of 278 jobs. The company has blamed a downturn in the world disk-drive market.
The company's losses have seriously accumulated in recent months and "the decision to close has been taken with great regret," said a company spokesman.
Applied Magnetics has been in Coolock for more than 18 years, manufacturing disk head assemblies for the disk-drive industry. The problems in this sector were also responsible for the closure of the Seagate plant in Clonmel, with the loss of 1,400 jobs.
The company is now in discussions with the employees and SIPTU on arrangements for the final closure.
Before Christmas workers were informed that the company was experiencing difficulties and its future was in doubt. The fact that workers were doing overtime a fortnight before this, due to the level of orders, gives an indication of the industry's volatility.
Nearly half of the company's workers had been laid off before Christmas, pending a review of the operation, but the plant had come through similar difficulties during its 18-year existence.
An IDA spokesman said he regretted the closure, but if the company had continued it would only have been "selling products into warehousing".
He said the workers' chances of getting alternative employment would be "quite high" as they "have skills, gained over many years, that will be needed".
The IDA is working with the staff and management to find alternative projects. The spokesman said several computer companies would be interested in taking over the site because of its location beside other similar operations.
Yesterday workers at the plant said they were "shocked and disappointed" at the company's closure, despite the pre-Christmas warning. They learned there was to be no reprieve at a meeting in the afternoon.
"People are a bit shocked. We didn't think it would go altogether. Some people have spent 15 years in the place, and it was hard to believe the news when it came," said one woman who, like other workers who spoke to reporters, asked not to be named.
An engineer said the company had been trying to develop new disk-drive products, but the initiative had failed. Production was stopping immediately, he added.
"It was a good place to work, and they (local management) were very up-front about the problems," said another female staff member. "To be honest they were as upset about it as we were."
The few staff prepared to talk to the press were optimistic about finding employment in the electronics industry elsewhere. "We now have skills, such as cleanroom skills, which we didn't have before," said one.
Employment in the company was never steady, some staff pointed out, with many of them taken on and laid off as major contracts came and went. That pattern had given workers hope that the December lay-offs were temporary.
Management representatives declined to discuss the closure with reporters outside the plant yesterday.