Antrim factory to close with loss of 200 jobs

More than 200 workers at a factory in Co Antrim are to lose their jobs after a proposal to save the company collapsed.

An attempted management buyout of the Coats Viyella's Dorma factory in Randalstown has failed, and workers will receive their 90-day notice by the end of this week.

A spokesman for the fabric company said international competition from countries including Pakistan, Turkey and China meant the order book was exhausted.

He said the parent company, which has another plant in Derry with 200 employees, will not be transferring its operations elsewhere and was downsizing.

Workers at Randalstown were warned in January the plant was in difficulty. An attempt to sell the factory as a going concern failed

In July 2001, a sister Coats Viyella factory in Co Fermanagh closed with the loss of 140 jobs.