Overseas Competition Kills Local Jobs

Jobs are to go at a Co Londonderry shirt manufacturer - and the blame is being put squarely on cheap foreign manufacturers.

The shock move will see almost a third of the staff at the Londonderry shirt factory Graham Hunter, losing their jobs.

Around 30 jobs are expected to go at the shirt factory.

The lay-offs at the Springtown plant have been forced by the cost of manufacturing in the Province in comparison with overseas competition, management said.

"Unfortunately we've just had to reduce the size of it due to our inability to get enough business at the kind of prices that are required for Irish production these days," said sales director Simon Hunter.

The company, a division of Hunter Apparel Soultions, had employed 94 people in Londonderry and 18 in Birmingham specialising in the manufacture of uniforms for public authorities.

Stating that the local factory was still the largest of its kind in the British Isles, Mr Hunter said manufacturing would continue there for the foreseeable future.

"We are investing in a flexible training programme that will help to sustain manufacturing jobs that remain."

(BMcC/NS)