Neill O’Neill
CALLS have been made for Enterprise Ireland and local development groups to focus on creating further employment in Westport, following the announcement last week of 42 job losses at the Field Boxmore Healthcare Packaging plant, formerly Berry Print, in the town.
The company will cut its workforce in the town back to approximately 138, management announced last week, following a corporate decision to review their worldwide manufacturing capacity as a result of ongoing market pressure.
The news was delivered to staff by Mr Dave Lennon, Managing Director of Field Boxmore Europe, and Mr James Maloney, General Manager of the Westport plant, at the company’s manufacturing facility on the Golf Course Road last Thursday. Staff were informed that 31 voluntary redundancies were being sought. Eleven other redundancies have taken effect at the firm in recent weeks.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Mr Lennon said that invitations for voluntary redundancies would be sought this week and that if enough of these were not forthcoming management would have to carry out an overview of the workforce and execute compulsory redundancies.
He said that a downturn in business in light of renewed competitiveness and market pressure on prices across Europe were major factors in the job losses. He further said that the company’s business is acquired by tender through e-auctioning and, given the dynamic make-up of the market, which has seen a host of competitors enter from Eastern Europe and Asia in recent years, it was difficult at times to remain competitive.
Speculation about the loss of a major contract was not confirmed by Mr Lennon, who said that factors such as the closure of production plants and the moving of product lines abroad by customer companies were factors in the job losses. The re-engineering of certain products by their customers, which eliminated the need for Field Boxmore products, was also cited as a cause.
Mr Lennon stressed that the company was optimistic about the security of the remaining jobs in Westport, as they would be endeavouring to utilise their highly-skilled local workforce to become a major player in the European market and become a leader business.
Westport-based TD, Deputy Michael Ring (left), responded to the job losses by issuing an urgent demand to Enterprise Ireland and the IDA to immediately seek out industrial tenants for the vacant Westport Industrial Park.
Newly-elected Cathaoirleach of Westport Town Council, Cllr Declan Dever, spoke on behalf of the whole Council when he said they were all disappointed to hear of the loss of jobs at Field Boxmore.
“Our first thoughts are for those people involved and their families,” he said, calling on the multi-agency group that was formed in the wake of the Allergan job losses in 2005 to meet again and discuss the situation. “They came up with some good ideas last time, which were positive for the town, and I urge them to do so once more.”
President of Westport Chamber of Commerce, Mr Simon Cronin, echoed these sentiments, saying that it is always unfortunate when people lose their jobs. He added that the focus of the chamber and the multi-agency group would now shift to attracting investment and jobs to Westport and the surrounding areas and while this would not happen overnight, they would be working extremely hard to achieve it.
These are the first major job losses at Berry’s – as it is still known locally – in 43 years of operation in the town, since the late Mr Joe Berry formed his independent printing company in 1964. The Field Boxmore Group acquired the business in 1999 and the company, which operates 16 other plants in Europe, also has manufacturing sites in Dublin, Cavan, Belfast and Limerick.
Field Boxmore Healthcare Packaging forms part of the Chesapeake Corporation which is a publicly quoted US company with headquarters in Richmond Virginia. The company employs over 5,000 people globally.
