Overseas competition sees company close

MORE jobs are to go in the south east because of competition from abroad.

A manufacturing company based in Co Kilkenny, which produces steel tubes for the construction industry, is to close.

The 17 workers at Tube Rollers, in Callan, ten miles from Kilkenny city, received the news yesterday at a meeting with management.

The company was founded in 1975 and bought by The Duggan Steel Group in Kilkenny in 1998. In a statement, the company said the decision was regretted but forced upon it because of increased competition from abroad.

It said job losses would be kept to a minimum and most employees would be re-deployed across other operations in the Duggan Steel Group.

The news has stunned the town. Workers had no word of the cuts until they were called to a meeting with management at noon on Wednesday

Meanwhile, 33 jobs are to go in Wexford. The staff at Frigoglass were told of the cuts by management at the plant on Whitemill Industrial Estate in the town yesterday.

Workers at the plant, which makes fridges for the industrial and retail market, were told production will end at the end of June.