ALMOST 100 redundancies were announced in Portadown this week, with the closure of one factory and the scaling-down of another.
Huhtamaki at Gilford Road, which manufacture plastic packaging for the food industry, will lock the gates at the end of July, with 70 redundancies.
And textile manufacturing company Irwin's of Goban Street are axing the printed mattress fabric sec
tion of their factory, with the loss of 25 jobs. There are plans to redevelop the site for housing.
Philip Woolsey, production manager at Huhtamaki, said that a number of conditions had combined to force the decision - the move from plastic materials to more environmentally-friendly packaging, the costs of electricity, the exchange rate of sterling against the euro, and the price of raw materials.
Irwin's currently employ 105 people at factories in Portadown and Donacloney and will retain 15 at the Edenderry plant.
product
Said chairman Ian Irwin, "We can't get the materials any more and even if we could, nobody wants printed mattress fabric. We are the last plant in the market making it. It has been replaced by all-woven jacquard, which we make in the Donacloney factory."
An application to develop the riverside site has been lodged with the Planning Service. It includes the provision of 92 apartments and 58 houses, along with parking, landscaping and a linear riverside park.
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