Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Tennis-ball manufacturer Penn Racquet Sports plans to close its Irish factory in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, with 116 job losses. At its height, the plant produced 80,000 tennis balls a day.
Production will transfer to a sister facility in Phoenix, Arizona, US, by March 2004, which is likely to have been motivated by a desire to protect American jobs. With the US government pressurising manufacturers to safeguard domestic jobs, Penn Ireland may be a victim of its parent's determination to protect operations in Phoenix.
In a statement Penn, which opened in Mullingar in 1974, blamed the closure on a slump in tennis ball sales and competition from cheaper Far East rivals.
The plants prospects have been grim following the closure in March of its main supplier, Kilkenny-based Textech. Since then, raw materials have been sourced at much greater expense from Maine in the US.
Eurofound (2003), Penn Racquet Sports, Closure in Ireland, factsheet number 59176, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/59176.