Glen Dimplex has announced that approximately 70 jobs are to be axed at its Dunleer plant by October of this year.
The company says however that it is "committed to a multi-million investment in its facility in Dunleer so that it can be re-purposed to accommodate a relocation of the Group’s fast growing sales and distribution arm (Glen Dimplex Ireland) and the 70 associated roles from Cloghran, County Dublin"
In their statement issued this morning, Glen Dimplex said: "In February 2024 Glen Dimplex announced a major reorganisation and investment in its operations on the Island of Ireland and Lithuania to reposition itself for growth in the electric heating markets in Europe. A large part of these plans have been completed or in progress.
"As previously announced, Glen Dimplex is committed to a multi-million investment in its facility in Dunleer so that it can be re-purposed to accommodate a relocation of the Group’s fast growing sales and distribution arm (Glen Dimplex Ireland) and the 70 associated roles from Cloghran, County Dublin.
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"The major investment in the Group’s manufacturing site in Lithuania is well underway which will leverage existing manufacturing capacity and become a centre of excellence for storage heating and panel heaters.
"During 2024 there has been a major contraction in the market for heat pumps across Europe due to Geopolitical factors, changing policies and support schemes, and lower gas prices.
“Due to the weaker demand outlook for heat pumps across Europe in the near future, Glen Dimplex is proposing to consolidate its investment and manufacturing capacity for low carbon heating and ventilation solutions in its Newry plant rather than continuing operations in both Newry and Dunleer.
"Glen Dimplex remains firmly committed to the energy transition and the Newry plant will benefit from investment as it scales to manufacture these low carbon solutions, including heat pumps."
Reacting to the news, Louth Deputy Ged Nash TD described the Glen Dimplex announcement that 70 manufacturing jobs at the plant are at risk as "a disaster for the workers and their families as well as the wider community in Dunleer and Mid-Louth."
“It sounds the death knell for good manufacturing jobs at the Dunleer plant and comes on top of another significant round redundancies at Glen Dimplex, last year.
“This latest blow means any pledges the company made in the context of the last round of redundancies and indeed today to add jobs at the Dunleer facility in the future will be treated with the scepticism it deserves.
“While there is a commitment to expand warehousing jobs at Glen Dimplex in Dunleer, the company’s behaviour over the last year will not inspire confidence among the people of Dunleer and Mid-Louth.
“They need to learn from the contemptuous way they treated workers and their union in the previous round of job losses in Dunleer.
“I am calling on the company to now engage meaningfully with workers and their representatives in SIPTU to explore every alternative short of redundancies and I made that clear to them in a call this morning. I have also been in contact with SIPTU.
“If it is the case that redundancies cannot be avoided, the company must co-operate with unions to deliver a fair, collective and genuinely consultative redundancy process.
“Workers who may be made redundant should be recognised for their hard work, their skills and their loyalty with a package that is fair, decent and is benchmarked against established norms.
“This is an enormous blow for the town of Dunleer and the Mid-Louth region and requires a national response from government and State agencies to bring new jobs to the region and make sure affected workers find alternative employment quickly.”