Uponor jobs go north following sale of premises

SIXTY jobs in the Cork-based plastics firm Uponor are to go to the North following the sale of its premises to a Cork-based development firm, believed to be O’Flynn Construction.

The confirmed sale is believed to have netted a sum of €25 million gross for the Finnish firm.

The loss of the Cork jobs is laid at the door of a property play, as the company posted healthy profits for Ireland last year.

Uponor’s decision to relocate to its other facility in Banbridge, Co Down, is down to rationalisation and streamlining of operations, the company said. However, industry sources claim the move has been influenced by the high value of the present site.

The firm employs up to 100 people in the North. About 60 Cork workers have been offered the option of relocation.

The contracts are signed on the land, of which there is 9.5 acres in an industrially-zoned location off the Bishopstown Roundabout. The handover is due to take place in the last quarter of 2008.

The Uponor site has been on the market in fits and starts and had carried a guide of €35m, but failed to sell last summer.

Agents Savill HOK has been negotiating with a number of parties since then and describes the site as being suitable to high-value retail, rather than industrial zoning.