The Irish Glass container factory at Ringsend, Dublin, is to close in June because its owner, Ardagh plc, has failed to win changed working practices from the factory's 375 employees. At the same time Ardagh has acquired a glass container factory in Italy from Canadian group Consumers Int. Ardagh says it needed improved working practices and prices to keep the factory open. Eddie Kilty, Ardagh CE says, "It is with great regret that this decision has been made." The Italian factory is a single furnace operation at Montorio al Vomano and produces up to 90,000 tonnes of beer bottles/year with 120 employees for the brewer Peroni. The firm says its Rockware operations continue to trade profitably and in line with expectations. Rockware has just finished a £4.5M improvement at its Wheatley factory to produce non-round Nescafe jars on a triple gob machine.
