CONTINUING COSTS relating to the phased closure of Fruit of the Loom’s Irish operation and transfer to Morocco pushed the clothing company’s pretax loss to €23.7million to end of last year.

Accounts recently filed by Fruit of the Loom International Ltd to the Companies Office show that turnover last year dropped by 11 per cent to €143.7 million. The filings show that the Donegal-based firm’s pretax loss increased by 37 per cent to €23.7m.

In their report, the directors state that they expect the company to return to a profitable position in 2010. The directors state that the resulting loss for 2008 “was expected as part of continuing transition phase”.

Restructuring costs of €1.54 million, relating to the transfer to Morocco, contributed to the company’s increased losses.

With no manufacturing taking place at the company’s Irish operation, the numbers employed at the company’s base at the Carndonagh Business Centre are now minimal. At its peak, the US-owned clothing manufacturer employed 3,500 people in six plants in Ireland.

However, in 2004, the company announced that it would shut its remaining two factories with the loss of 650 jobs in Donegal and Derry before the end of 2009. The company made the decision in order to transfer its spinning, knitting and dyeing operations to Morocco, where it employs 1,700 people.

Last year’s losses pushed up the company’s accumulated losses to €140 million at the end of December 2008. The company’s operating loss in 2008 more than doubled to €18.1 million from €8.7 million.

The costs of the company’s “fundamental re-organisation” was €1.5 million and interest payable of €4.2 million.