Mondelez Ireland has announced that it is to let go of more than 220 people at its three Irish locations.
The group is to close its chewing gum production plant in Tallaght, which will see the loss of 62 positions at the plant responsible for its Trident brand. These consist of 45 permanent roles and 17 contracted roles.
The closure of the Tallaght location is due to go ahead in early 2016.
A representative for Mondelez explained that the closure is connected to changes within the industry, "Global demand for gum is declining and the development of a new, superior technology for the production of end-to-end gum products supersedes the current technology in Tallaght."
However the company has announced new proposals to coincide the restructure which include a €11.7 million investment in new chocolate making technology to enable Coolock to concentrate production on core chocolate brands; Cadbury Dairy Milk 8-square, Flake, Twirl and Boost, for consumption in Ireland and the export market.
The remainder of the job losses will come from its operation plants in Coolock, county Dublin and Rathmore, county Kerry, expected to amount to 160 redundancies.
These particular plants have been open 51 and 67 years respectively.
It is also expected that production will cease on both its Time Out and Pink Snack brands, as their wafer brands have been in decline for several years now
Commenting, Justin Cook, Managing Director of Mondelez Ireland said: “Following extensive reviews, we have presented separate proposals to employees in Tallaght and also at our chocolate sites in Coolock and Rathmore. We very much regret that these proposed changes would require role reductions. We are committed to working fairly and respectfully with employees and their representatives through the consultation processes that will now commence."
He added, “Our proposals to restructure our chocolate business aim to build a stronger business in Ireland. Cadbury is the only large scale chocolate brand manufactured in Ireland. We are proud to support Irish farmers by buying approximately 70 million litres of milk every year and of our heritage as the home of Ireland’s best-selling chocolate bar, the Cadbury Dairy Milk 8-square, as well as Flake, Twirl and Boost.”
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said, "The company will also be working closely with workers in an effort to ensure that the impact of this decision is minimised to the greatest extent possible and to discuss investment it will be making in Ireland in order to build a stronger business here for the long term. Enterprise Ireland will be involved in those discussions and I have directed the agencies of my Department to step up their efforts to bring employment to the areas affected."
He added, "Job-creation remains a huge challenge for Ireland. We face a huge battle to retain and improve our competitiveness, to maintain the jobs we have and to create new jobs. Thankfully we are creating more jobs than we are losing and the unemployment rate, while still far too high, is falling."
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Hannah Popham.
