NORTHERN IRELAND engineering firm Powerscreen has informed its workforce that redundancies may be unavoidable because of a fall in orders.
The Dungannon, Co Tyrone-based company, which is owned by US heavy equipment manufacturer Terex Corporation, directly employs more than 550 staff. It also employs a significant number of subcontractors in the North.
No firm details have been released about the number of jobs that may be under threat.
The group told employees yesterday that measures would be initiated immediately to maintain employment in Co Tyrone. These include bringing work which had been outsourced back into the plant. Powerscreen may also consider extending its annual winter shutdown period.
Powerscreen manufactures screening and crushing equipment and has an international network of more than 100 dealers.
Established in 1966, it was one of the North’s leading listed companies until it was rocked by a financial scandal in the late 1990s.
In 1997, Powerscreen International reported interim pretax profits of £23.6 million. In December that year, it launched a share placing which raised £18 million. Barely a month later, it emerged that there were accounting irregularities at one of its subsidiaries in Britain.
It eventually transpired that there was a £46.7 million black hole in the accounts of its Matbro subsidiary. The accounting scandal resulted in massive losses at the Northern Irish company.
Powerscreen’s share price plummeted overnight, leaving it vulnerable to a takeover and, in 1999, it was acquired by New York Stock Exchange-listed Terex.
Earlier this month, Terex division president Eric Nielsen paid his first visit to the Dungannon plant, during which he congratulated staff on the continued growth of the company.
Terex recently confirmed that it planned to open a manufacturing plant in Hosur, India. However, it has stressed that this facility will concentrate on servicing the local market.
