More than 250 jobs are to go at one of the north-west's biggest industrial employers, it was confirmed yesterday. Unifi Textured Yarns (Europe) Limited announced that it was laying off more than a third of its 700-strong workforce in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
The president of Unifi Europe, Mr Fintan McGrath, said: "The past five years have been particularly challenging, with imports of polyester textured yarn from Asia growing to more than 50 per cent of Western European mill consumption, Irish inflation significantly increasing operating costs for labour, energy, insurance and rates and recent significant increases in raw material costs."
The company will enter a 30- day consultation period with union representatives to discuss redundancies and to review "other measures and initiatives in its effort to improve competitiveness".
Unifi has cut more than 600 jobs since the start of the year at a number of locations in America, and last week its president, Sligo man Mr Brian Parke, issued an internal memo which warned of "tough decisions". He said impending changes would "flatten the organisation, resulting in a faster, more customer-friendly focused company".
While the news was not unexpected, the scale of the job losses will have a huge bearing on the local economy in a county where the unemployment rate is still over 15 per cent. Unifi's operations in Ireland are believed to have incurred losses before tax of £9.2 million in the year ending June 2001 on a turnover of nearly £92 million.It employs more than 6,000 people in 18 plants worldwide.
The lay-offs represent another major blow to the textile industry in Donegal where there have been significant job losses, notably at Fruit of the Loom and, in the past 12 months, at Nena Models and Comer Yarns.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, expressed disappointment and said it was "dreadful news for the workers and wider community". The key priority now was to ensure maximum support and assistance to those effected and she had been assured by the company of their commitment to assist in this process.
Reacting to the news,The Minister of State for Transport, Dr James McDaid, who is a local TD, said it was "a black day for Letterkenny."