Cartamundi to close

JohnC.

Some sad news. 234 jobs to go. Phased closure up to August.

https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2023/0322/1365695-waterford-jobs/

PTH2009

Very sad news for the city and heart goes out too all the workers

Never got the chance to work there but heard it was a handy short term employer for many

Crusty Blaa

Yeah another sad day for Waterford is right.

They are there nearly 50 years as MB, Hasbro and then Cartamundi so it employed many a generation in Waterford. Unfortunately it appears the writing had been on the wall for the workers with hours being cut and all that over the last few years.

Wanderer78

not surprised really, but its really sh1t for the folks there, i wish them the best

I know a few former Crystal workers out there so the best of luck AGAIN going forward to ye!

Rustyman101

Hopefully the staff get properly funded redundancy packages and some of our useless TDs try encourage investment in the SE.

Few visits by the IDA wouldn't go astray.

This and the Horizon announcement are very bad news for the SE on the jobs front.

We need more pharma and med device companies.

Best of luck to all involved.

friendlyfun

I told people on here there was nothing for the young people in Waterford, I don't feel I am entirely incorrect. Gamestop will be next to go from the half empty City Square. Get real, we need to open up our eyes.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120388844#Comment_120388844

What a miserable post.

There is to be fair very few opportunities here.

Yes, a few large companies but few recruiting.

For those young people looking for work don't wait around here

for something to happen because it won't!

Get an education / qualification / trade & just go!

The world is too big a place & life is too short to put on hold.

Cabaal

Crap for the people affected, I wish them luck.

Having gone through redundancy before its not fun!

I'm a little surprised they were still open this long, I remember hearing about lots of redundancys when it was Hasbro back in the early 2000's.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120388844#Comment_120388844

Gamestop is the Xtravision of our day, back in 2009 I knew somebody who went fgor a job in Xtravision...I straight up told them they were mad and the business would be gone in 2 years. I was only slightly wrong, they sold off the Irish business in 2009 and stores started to close in 2013.

The reality is games are more and more online. Physical media's days are very much numbered. When it closes it has zero to do with Waterford and more to do with people's overall media consumption habits and Broadband availability.

daaave

Deeply saddened from today's announcement.

I had the pleasure of working there from 2007 to 2010 and have very fond memories of the comradery amongst the workforce and sense of belonging, even though i was only there on contract.

For those who may benefit from a suitable package, i wish you well. For those who are not so far down the road within their career, i sincerely hope that doors will open up for you and that employers within the region will recognise the great potential in a former Cartamundi employee, given their impressive track record of reinventing themselves and maintaining a strong level of competitiveness within a volatile global market for the past few decades.

BBM77

RTE, WLR and News & Star will overdo it of course. Would not even listen to Damien Tiernan today, it will be absurd. However, sad news none the less. Particularly feel sorry for people in their 50’s affected. Can be very hard for them to get another job when made redundant like this. Did some work in there myself in the past, decent bunch of people. Best of luck to you all, hope you’ll have a quick turn around finding another job.

Wanderer78

good to see dividends were paid out before this announcement....

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/2023/03/23/cartamundi-owners-received-almost-31m-in-dividends-from-ireland-before-closing-waterford-factory/

https://headtopics.com/ie/cartamundi-owners-received-almost-31m-in-dividends-from-ireland-before-closing-waterford-factory-37018862

Motivator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120388862#Comment_120388862

Miserable yes, but also 100% accurate.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120395112#Comment_120395112

Will you tell me please, no bullshit, what you think the problem is? I read a lot of reactive complaints, but little else.

Hotblack Desiato

It's unfortunate to say the least for those losing their jobs, but really this sort of low-value manufacturing in Ireland is a relic of the 1970s and it's amazing it lasted this long.

We're a high-wage economy in a globalised era, putting board games into boxes is much more cheaply done in China and other places.

The doom and gloom is overdone. Waterford is a fine city I've had the pleasure of visiting numerous times, young people there should - same as in Dublin or anywhere else - look to gain qualifications or a trade instead of hoping for a low wage assembly line job.

There was all sorts of doom and gloom when Dell closed their assembly operation in Limerick, they now employ more people in Ireland than they did then and at much higher average wages. Moving up the value chain.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120404331#Comment_120404331

...we ll know all about it if we keep outsourcing our manufacturing, we lose critical skills and abilities to manufacturing during so, and move more towards a service economy....

PTH2009

Will Antony get shot ??

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120388844#Comment_120388844

I also told you about the opportunities for young people in Waterford.

Tech (several international tech companies here and with remote working even more on offer), Pharma, hospitality, health (UHW, Whitfield), teaching (plenty of schools and 3rd level lecturing in SETU, WCFE), I'm seeing plenty of houses being built so one would expect the trade business is a good shout these days, full time fire service with full and retained jobs on offer, I can probably keep going if you wish?

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120413084#Comment_120413084

Whatever it is thats required, I have seen no one articulate it. ANy solutions anyone? Can we have a list instead of criticism?

friendlyfun

A proper university would be a good start help stop the brain drain from the region. That's probably never going to happen though.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120418235#Comment_120418235

Thank you, thats probably top of my list.

Beechwoodspark

There is a proper university it is called SETU in fact it is what began as Waterford RTC - hehe remember them?- then it became the WIT and now only recently promoted to the University league.

friendlyfun

Promoted to TU and there's one for everyone in the audience. Wonder how that engineering building is coming along?

This is nothing more than a PR move to placate Waterford.

curmudgeonly

Sad news but was always on the cards (excuse the pun) .

In a couple of years we will see a whole different industry in these buildings probably paying a lot more that the present wage roll. the buildings are way underused and will prove to be a big drawing card for Waterford.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120469045#Comment_120469045

hopefully, but i suspect many vacant buildings just arent equipped for more modern businesses, and sometimes its just best to start from scratch, rather than altering, leaving them vacant long term....

You would probably house a few hundred migrants out there!

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120409996#Comment_120409996

You do realize that it is not a Waterford company? Like Hasbro and MB! We are the net beneficiaries of outsourcing.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120495278#Comment_120495278

...disagree strongly there, we ve been outsourcing our ability to manufacture, our ability in gaining knowledge and advancement of modern manufacturing methods, and equipment etc, resulting in our severe lack of abilities in manufacturing our own needs, this all in turn means we have become deeply dependent on other regions in providing our needs, thus become susceptible to the problems of these regions. this has become very evident since covid, since a significant proportion of western goods are manufactured in the east, leaving us severely exposed, so much so, theres still serious supply chain problems in many sectors, which in turn has ultimately lead to our inflationary problems, and then theres chip manufacturing in Taiwan! no wonder theres now panic stations in this sector, leading to a significant rise in the expansion of manufacturing of such now occurring in the west, outsourcing really hasnt been all that its cracked up to be, and you can be damn sure, the major havent truly financially gained from this policy either!

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120496420#Comment_120496420

These are falacious arguments. We never had and don't have an indigenous chip industry.In fact we never had any industry of our own worth talking about and what we had certainly wasn't advanced. Apart from Waterford Crystal and a few other notable exceptions the vast majority of people I know in Waterford have been employed by multinationals in some shape or form. And even Indigenous industry is highly dependent on imports. Cartemundi is us benefitting from outsourcing! It is not our industry. I live 40 minutes from where this company originated in Turnhout. Belgium. It seems to me that you are calling outsourcing is only being applied to jobs leaving Ireland while you are ignoring jobs coming into Ireland which have been much more advanced. There is no world where a country of four million people can sustain a modern economy without 'outsourcing'.What you are talking about is an autarky which we are not, never have been or never could be. Unless you think hunter gathering and subsistence farming is a desirable economic model. We have more advanced manufacturing now than we ever did have. What manufacturing have we lost that was not replaced by outsourcing from another country? And what manufacturing have we lost that is not FDI which in essence is outsourcing.

The only surprise about the closure of Cartimundi is that it is still operating at all. And that is not to minimize the loss of jobs. I worked out there nearly 30 years ago when it changed over from MB to Hasbro.That type of manufacturing was on shaky ground then and had been for years. My friends father was made redundant from MB in 1983 iirc. I never forget the talk one of the managers gave us. I think he was a HR guy named Frisby. He stated openly that MB in Waterford successfully got the sister plant in Netherlands closed by doing the same work cheaper and had ambitions to do the same to the Israeli plant. That is the reality of outsourcing! I don't remember anyone in Waterford complaining about the Dutch jobs that were lost.

Hotblack Desiato

We tried autarky in Ireland for about 40 years, it just led to poverty and mass emigration. Ireland's greatest exports during that period were cattle on the hoof and people.

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120502837#Comment_120502837

Exactly! I was studying geography for the Inter Cert in the late 80's. We learned that agriculture (25%) and tourism (20%) made up 45% of our economy. And a large part of our manufacturing was based on thinks like meat processing and mil production. Today agri makes up 1%.