Monday, February 17, 2025

€6m annual blow to Mullingar economy

The town of Mullingar was dealt a €6m annual economic blow and a severe jobs setback with the announcement last week by Imperial Tobacco that it is to close its manufacturing facility at Dublin Road, Mullingar, with the loss of 87 jobs, due to new EU regulations.

For the employees of the town’s longest-established factory – which began as Douwe Egberts in 1967 – and their families, last week’s news was a shock and a devastating blow. It is also another major setback for the town’s economy, which has not secured a new manufacturing industry in a long time, and now has few such enterprises. Four years ago, with the closure of Columb Barracks and the departure of the garrison there, the town was also seriously hit, even though army personnel retained their jobs in Athlone or elsewhere.
The workers at the Imperial Tobacco manufacturing plant in Mullingar were left in shock when they went to the canteen on Thursday to discover that that they had three months left.
“Things are pretty down there at the moment,” one worker told Topic. “We went into work and were all told to go to the canteen area at 1.30. People had come across from England and broke the news there and then, basically.”
They were told that production lines will cease in Mullingar by the end of September. “That’s just three months and very short notice.”
“This goes back to the likes of Minister James Reilly and measures introduced by the European Union when they changed pouch size. Mullingar’s production was 9g, 12.5g, 20g and 25g. The new legislation that came in really cut Mullingar out of the equation altogether,” Topic was told.
Ironically, the factory closure announcement on 30 June, came on the day when Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD was in Mullingar, at the invitation of local TD Peter Burke, to visit the IDA Business Park at Marlinstown. Deputy Burke had raised concerns in the Dáil about the underutilisation of the Business Park, with the Minister accompanied by IDA representatives.
The fully serviced Marlinstown Business Park was put in place over a decade ago at great expense, but since then, the IDA failed to attract any new business enterprise to their park, or to any other industrial location in the town. However, the two other Midland Gateway towns of Athlone and Tullamore fared much better in industrial terms. The only advance by the Business Park came about as a result of the expansion move by Patterson Pump from Lynn Industrial Park to Marlinstown, when they needed larger premises, and erected a new manufacturing unit there, which was visited by the Enterprise Minister, Ms. Mitchell. (A crop of oats is at present growing in the remainder of the IDA’s 68- acre Marlinstown location, with its disused roads and infrastructure.)
COMPANY
ANNOUNCEMENT
The Mullingar Imperial Tobacco employees heard the shock closure news on Thursday afternoon last in their canteen, and were told the new ruling by the European union to introduce a 30g minimum pack size for rolling tobacco products in May led to the necessity to decommission the soon-to-be closed production lines at the Mullingar factory. The remaining production goes to another of Imperial Tobacco’s manufacturing sites in the Netherlands, the employees were told.
The Operations Director for Western Europe, Ian King said the company and employees will now enter into a 30-day consultation process.
“Any job losses are regrettable and we will continue to support our employees and ensure they are treated in a fair and responsible manner,” he said. The company said there will be no change to the sale and availability of their brands in Ireland, including Golden Virginia and Drum.
(Report on reaction of employees and views of local TDs on page 3.)

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