Rathkeale fears loss of 169 jewellery jobs

Hopes were fading last night for 169 jobs in Rathkeale as it emerged the company which took over costume jewellery maker, Andersen Ireland, has racked up losses in the region of €7m since December.

Sat, 07 Sep, 2013 - 01:00

Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

PL Holdings announced that it is putting the company into voluntary liquidation.

Andersen Ireland was set up in Rathkeale in 1976 and has been a mainstay of the local economy.

The other big employer in the town is the Goodman meat factory, AIBP, which employs more than 100 people.

Two thirds of the workers at Andersen Ireland are women.

The company will continue to trade until Sept 23, when the liquidator will be appointed.

PL Holdings brought the company out of insolvency in December with the hope of making it a going concern. However, losses have still continued to spiral.

Workers had already been on a three-day-week prior to the decision to liquidate the business.

A company spokesman said: “The envisaged improvement in sales has not materialised to the extent required to keep the production facility viable, leading to significant losses this year, which make the steps taken necessary.”

Local Fine Gael TD Dan Neville said: “This is a very worrying situation for the workers, their families and the wider community. We can only hope there can be a satisfactory outcome to the deliberations which are currently ongoing.”

Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins said: “I am very concerned at today’s news. With a year-round population of less than 2,000, Rathkeale would suffer enormously if this amount of jobs are lost.”

A sad day for the town .... Will the recession ever end..! #Rathkeale #recession
— Aoife O' Sullivan (@AoifSully) September 6, 2013

One worker, who asked not to be named, said: “I was hoping it wasn’t as serious as it has turned out to be. I thought it might be an overstaffing matter and they would be leaving a few people go. But it’s a lot worse than that. We are shocked.”

Rathkeale businessman Noel White said the news had come as a massive blow to the town. “There is total devastation among the workers and their families,” he said.