Irish Glass Plant Closing

Irish Glass Bottle’s plant in Ringsend, Ireland, announced that it is closing. Irish Glass is owned by Ardagh Group.

The decision to close the plant was taken earlier this week by the Ardagh board after several of the company’s major customers in the drinks industry failed to commit themselves to sufficient volumes from Ringsend at prices that would have guaranteed the plant's future. Ardagh is the major supplier of glass bottles in Ireland.

Ardagh chief executive Eddie Kilty said the company had looked for three-year supply agreements with its major customers at prices higher than the current level but lower than prices in 1999. That was when Ardagh began to reduce prices when Quinn Glass began production at a new low-cost plant.

“We got agreement on prices but not on volumes and that meant we could only operate the equivalent of 51/2 machines out of eight. We looked at cutting back staff, cutting back management, cutting back overheads, the whole gamut, but we couldn't get to a situation where the plant could be profitable,” said Kilty. He added that the closure would probably be complete in about 10 weeks.

Ardagh first announced plans to close Ringsend at the end of February after deciding that the plant was no longer competitive and that without major changes in work practices it had no future. At that time, negotiations with the unions had failed to produce the required changes in work practices.

But lengthy negotiations involving the Labour Relations Commission produced a survival plan that involved some layoffs, changed shift patterns, the elimination of job demarcation and the contracting-out of some plant maintenance. In return, Ardagh had given a commitment to invest in the Ringsend plant to bring it up to world-class standards.

The closure of Irish Glass will mean that Quinn Glass in Ballyconnell is the only domestic manufacturer of bottles and it is understood that Quinn does not have the capacity to fully meet the needs of the drinks manufacturers. It seems likely that most of the bottles for the Irish drinks manufacturers will now have to be imported.

The closure also means that a new outlet for the 100 million bottles the facility recycles each year will have to be found. The Irish Times