Up to 70 jobs to go at Cadbury plant in Coolock

Up to 70 jobs are to go at the Mondelez confectionary plant in Coolock in north Dublin as part of a major restructuring of the company's Irish operations.

Mondelez, which makes Cadbury products, briefed trade unions on Thursday about the plans which are understood to involve a voluntary redundancy scheme. The scheme is expected to run over the next two years.

It is understood that Mondelez plans to invest €15 million in new technology at the Coolock plant to concentrate on higher volume, more efficient product lines.

Up to 70 jobs will be lost as part of the restructuring programme, with voluntary redundancies expected to come from a mix of commercial and manufacturing positions.

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Some 380 people are employed at the facility which produces all the eight-square Dairy Milks as well as Flakes, Twirls and Starbars.

Brexit is understood to have played no role in the investment and redundancy decision.

Mondelez closed its gum-base production plant in Tallaght in 2014, with the loss of 45 permanent roles. It also cut 160 jobs at its other facilities in Coolock, and Rathmore, Co Kerry.

In addition, the company announced an €11.7 million investment in new chocolate-making technology at the Coolock facility.

Ossory Road

Cadbury built its first Irish factory at Ossory Road, East Wall, in 1933 where it initially made just three products. Its first big post-war expansion came in 1948 when it built the Rathmore chocolate crumb factory which exports to the UK, US, Canada, Japan and other markets.

In 1957, Cadbury opened its Coolock factory, bringing products such as Snack into the Irish market for the first time. In 1987, the Irish arm launched Twirl, having initially sold the chocolate as a single-finger product.

Kraft Foods bought Cadbury in 2010, and two years later spun-off its North American grocery division, including Cadbury, and renamed it Mondelez.

The company is launching a new Dairy Milk product with 30 per cent less sugar in July.