Thirty jobs will be cut from the Dundalk operations of Xerox Europe as part of its proposed manufacturing restructuring programme.

The reductions at the Co Louth plant, which currently employs 1,000 people, would be achieved through natural attrition and redeployment into other business units within the Dundalk site, Xerox said in a statement.

It said it intended to outsource to third-party suppliers during the second quarter of 2001 some wire harness assembly carried out at Dundalk. "Xerox always said the wire harness assembly would be a short-term activity to allow critical mass to develop at Dundalk, while other manufacturing operations got up and running," said a spokesman for the company.

As part of the restructuring, designed to reduce global operating costs by $200 million (#215 million) a year, repair and manufacturing activities for high-end colour products will be undertaken in Dundalk.

"This will be driven primarily by need, so it is difficult to predict whether it will add jobs," said the spokesman.

A further 110 jobs are being cut at the Xerox operation at Venray in the Netherlands and 90 at Mitcheldean in Britain.

The company is proposing to stop the manufacture of low-end analogue products from the end of July 2001 in order to focus on the growing digital and colour markets.

Several proposals outlined by the company in January as part of the restructuring effort, including the potential outsourcing of other digital modules and colour product assembly, are still under evaluation. If implemented, they could result in a further 240 jobs losses in Mitcheldean and 80 job losses in Venray. No further job cuts are expected at the Dundalk operation.

The restructuring in Europe is part of a global turnaround programme announced last October that included cutting $1 billion in costs and generating more than $2 billion in asset sales.