Runtalrad, the radiator manufacturer in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, will close next month with the loss of 45 jobs.

Thermal Radiators, a subsidiary of Zehner Holding, announced yesterday that the plant would cease manufacturing on July 23rd. This follows a review of the future investment requirements of its European operations in light of a changing market and competing demands for capital.

The plant opened in 1965, and was owned up to 12 months ago by Jones Group plc, which has sold off its shipping and manufacturing businesses over the last year. It sold products to the UK and Irish markets.

A spokesman for Enterprise Ireland, the State industrial support agency, said it would be working with local management of Runtalrad over the next few days to see what could be done about the closure and would discuss all the options available for the plant.

The statement by Thermal Radiators said the plant was closing because of significant reductions in prices paid for products produced by the plant, poor return on capital employed, poor and reducing productivity rates at the plant and prohibitive levels of reinvestment required to return the plant to profitability.

"The decision to close Runtalrad is a commercial one and resulted after due consideration of the proposed plans. It was not taken lightly. Regrettably, it is irreversible."

The radiator manufacturing industry in Europe has seen major consolidation over the last 12 months and yesterday's announcement followed the consideration by the Board of Granichen, Switzerland, of a viability plan submitted by Runtalrad earlier this year.

Local politicians expressed concern at the news. Mr Liam Aylward, a TD from the area, said: "It is a devastating blow for the town which has had a lot of bad news and bad times recently. This is the third loss Thomastown has had in a year, with the relocation of Kilkenny envelopes to Kilkenny city and the closure of Comerford Bakeries a few months ago."

" We have a lot of ground to make up but I will be pushing for the setting up of group involving the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, and local politicians to find an industry to come into Thomastown."

The Mayor of Kilkenny, Mr John Bolger, said he was very concerned about the move which would be a big blow to a town of the size of Thomastown.

"A great deal of employment at the moment comes from multinationals, and while they are building up jobs here this shows how vulnerable it makes us.

"I wonder at a time of such prosperity whether we pay enough attention to the volatility of multinationals.

"At present the balance is in our favour with more jobs being created than lost in overseas companies but with our dependency on them we should be looking to address the problem for the future."