The HB ice cream plant in Rathfarnham is to close by mid 2003 with the loss of 180 jobs from the company's current workforce of 800, the plant's owners Unilever Bestfoods said today.
The decision follows a review of Unilever's ice cream business which found the Rathfarnham plant to be uneconomical.
Unilever said that the closure will have no impact on the range of HB ice cream sold in Ireland as it intends to form joint ventures with smaller Irish manufacturers.
The managing director of Unilever Bestfoods Ireland, Mr Paul Murphy said "The unfortunate reality is that it is no longer possible for an ice cream manufacturing plant such as ours, to compete successfully with larger scale and more specialist Unilever plants located elsewhere on the Continent."
Despite being Ireland's leading ice cream brand, continued growth in demand for HB ice cream is insufficient to sustain the costs of running the Rathfarnham plant, he added.