Hundreds Of Jobs Lost At Limavady Seagate Plant

Workers at a Limavady production plant were dealt a final blow today, with the closure of Seagate Technologies - six weeks earlier than expected – resulting in almost 1,000 job losses.

Plans to cease manufacturing at the Co Londonderry site were revealed last year, but today the gates shut on the remaining skeleton staff - who had been running the factory down.

The US-owned firm has been operating in the area for over 10 years, where operatives at the plant built electronic components – work that will now be transferred to Malaysia.

The closure is despite original plans to continue production at the site for a further six weeks – although workers will still be paid until the end of next month.

Simon McGuinness was one of those made redundant by the firm. He told the BBC: "I gave 10 years of my life to that place now and basically they've upped and left us.

"It's not even a matter of we're not doing a good job because we were doing a good job, it's just they can get it cheaper somewhere else.

"It's a bit worrying wondering what the future holds for me and how I'm going to cope with bills," he added.

Rising cost and the global economic crisis have been blamed for the closure.

Plant Manager William O'Kane said: "We constantly operated under cost pressures.

"The workforce and the management team took enormous steps over the years and were very diligent and very successful in driving cost out of the operation.

"They did keep the factory successful for 11 years, however inevitably that was not enough and the cost pressures from the Far East could not be surmounted via efficiencies at a local level," said Mr O'Kane.

Yesterday, NI First Minister Peter Robinson told business leaders that Northern Ireland could not shelter itself from the global marketplace.

In light of today's news, Mr Robinson said there were still many positive factors in the Province to help sustain some growth in the economy over the next year.

Seagate Technologies' Northern Ireland operation will continue production at its plant on the Buncrana Road in Derry.

In other news today, a 'lifeline' has been thrown to some local NI companies facing a virtual financial storm.

The NI Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster announced that a £5million boost to help Invest Northern Ireland's clients weather the economic slowdown was being introduced.

See: Dodds Meets Seagate Bosses As Limavady Jobs Axed

(PR)