Job losses at clothing firm

Desmonds is closing its Newbuildings plant

A leading clothing firm is to close its last manufacturing plant in Northern Ireland with the loss of nearly 300 jobs.

Desmond & Sons announced on Wednesday that it was closing its factory at Newbuildings, near Londonderry where 277 jobs will be lost.

A cutting room at Springtown, Derry, where 16 people are employed, will also shut down.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the company blamed "significant competitive pressures" for its decision.

"Pressures on margins, coupled with increased insurance, energy and social costs combine to pose immense challenges to Northern Ireland manufacturing," the company said.

"Despite our efforts to maintain as much employment locally as possible, the inevitable result of all these pressures is that products cease to be viable when made in Northern Ireland and must be produced overseas.

Our government is sitting back watching their workers being put out of work Alan Elliot GMB union

"Our competitors have long since ceased to manufacture garments in the UK.

"The decision to end all manufacturing locally is one that we made reluctantly, but we had no other option left open to us.

"Desmonds recognises the human consequences of such decisions and the sense of shock there will be, particularly at Newbuildings and at Springtown."

Allan Elliot from the GMB union, which represents workers at the factory, said the government was also to blame for the job losses.

"Our government is sitting back watching their workers being put out of work," he said.

"The jobs that are here are going overseas and they are doing nothing about it."

Desmonds makes clothes for Marks and Spencer

Last year, Desmonds employed nearly 2,000 people at eight factories, mostly situated in the north west of Northern Ireland.

Since then, subsequent reviews have led to factories closing down.

Desmonds supplies Marks and Spencer and in the past has blamed cost pressures behind a decision to have many of its clothes made overseas.

In July, Desmonds' factory in Irvinestown, County Fermanagh, closed with the loss of 115 jobs.

That closure followed the shutting down of the firm's plants in Omagh, County Tyrone, and Swatragh, County Londonderry, in June.

Desmonds blamed a total of 500 jobs losses on foreign competition with work transferred to the company's overseas operations.

Earlier this year, the firm announced that more than 300 jobs were to go at two other plants.

At the time, the company said had it not responded in this way, it would have led inevitably to the demise of the business "to the greater economic detriment of Northern Ireland".