Dundalk was dealt a second jobs blow in 24 hours yesterday with the news that PJ Carroll and Company is likely to close its cigarette manufacturing plant, ending a near 200-year association with the Co Louth town.
The company said it had initiated discussions with trade unions on a proposal to close the factory, with the loss of 66 jobs. A spokeswoman said other options would be considered but closure was a "near definite solution".
The news followed confirmation by technology firm Quantum that it is to consider closing its Dundalk plant, which employs 250, as part of a review of European operations.
The announcements came in the wake of other closures in the north-east, such as the recent announcement by Thorsman Ireland that its Drogheda plant is to shut with the loss of 50 jobs.
Dundalk Council of Trade Unions is to seek an urgent meeting with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and job creation agencies to seek priority attention for the region, which has higher-than-average unemployment.
PJ Carroll and Company said in a statement that production in Dundalk had been in decline for some time and the factory was currently operating at only 45 per cent of capacity. Management believed the operation "will not remain viable for the future".
A spokeswoman said while no date had been set for closure of the plant, this was likely to happen within six months. From then on the company's leading brand, Carrolls No 1, as well as Major and Sweet Afton, would be manufactured elsewhere in Europe.
The announcement was part of a wider rationalisation plan announced yesterday by British American Tobacco, which took over PJ Carroll when it merged with Rothman International six years ago. Rothman had bought the company in 1991.
The Carroll's name has been associated with Dundalk since Patrick James Carroll opened his tobacco manufacturing store in the town in 1824. The company he founded has been making cigarettes there since 1905.
Employment peaked in the late 1970s when the plant had 600 workers, but numbers have steadily declined since. The spokeswoman said the ban on smoking in the workplace had affected sales, but a marked decline was already evident before the ban came into effect.
Siptu north-east branch secretary John King said workers were aware that the plant's long-term future was in doubt, but the announcement had still come "out of the blue".
He said while the company was talking about a consultation process, he had no doubt that the intention was to close the plant. Unions would insist that a severance package took into account the compulsory nature of the job cuts.
Local TD and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said the double jobs blow was bad news for Dundalk.
Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd said Louth was "haemorrhaging jobs". More than 100 jobs had been lost already this year and if Quantum closed, that number would more than treble.
