Ayrshire hit by major jobs blow

The Irvine factory opened its doors in 1957

One of Ayrshire's biggest employers is to close and relocate to Northern Ireland with the loss of up to 220 jobs in the area.

BBC Scotland has learned the Hyster forklift plant in Irvine will go through a phased closure, ending in January 2009.

About 120 staff are expected to be kept on at another location in Ayrshire.

The firm has had a plant in Irvine for 50 years. Parent company Nacco blamed European financial conditions.

A statement from the firm said that over capacity in Europe and the currency imbalance between the dollar, Euro and Sterling triggered the move.

Global economic issues have had a severe impact on trading and in order to safeguard the wider interests of the business we have been forced to take these steps Hugh McGhee Irvine plant manager

Irvine plant manager, Hugh McGhee, said: "It is extremely regrettable that manufacturing will scale down and cease by the end of January 2009.

"But after conducting the review of our European manufacturing operations it became clear that this course of action was unavoidable.

"Global economic issues have had a severe impact on trading and in order to safeguard the wider interests of the business we have been forced to take these steps.

"We will complete the final production orders for our current product range at Irvine in January 2009 after which these models will then be replaced by a new product range which will be built at our Craigavon plant in Northern Ireland."

'Support bodies'

Mr McGhee said that the firm was conducting a detailed communication process with all employees in the manufacturing and divisional arms of the business and will consult with them and their representatives over the coming months.

He added: "We will also be liaising with Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire and other support bodies over the course of the next 15 months to explore a number of options in regards to the retraining and upskilling of staff."

South of Scotland MSP Michael Russell described the Ayrshire decision as "cruel".

He said: "The loss of any job is disturbing, but to lose 220 in an area already striving to survive the loss of many of its indigenous industries is cruel."

The SNP's minister for the environment added: "I am not convinced that the current state of currency fluctuations have much bearing if the company is to move to Northern Ireland.

"I will be having discussions with my fellow colleagues in the south of Scotland to clarify what exactly is happening, and to help minimise the knock on effects of this loss on the people, and the communities affected by this situation."

'Indigenous industries'

Local Labour MP Brian Donohoe said: "This is a very serious blow to the local economy.

"I was led to believe not so many weeks ago that we were looking a different situation, where Irvine was going to fairly heavily feature in the plans for Nacco in the future.

"It's a very grave situation we're facing as far Hyster itself is concerned in Irvine."

The MP said it was also particularly bad for the area following the loss of other key manufacturing jobs.

The Simclar electronics group closed two factories at Irvine and Kilwinning in Ayrshire at the start of the year, with the loss of more than 400 jobs.

Scottish Enterprise has been alerted to the Irvine closure plan.