The gum-base production plant in Tallaght, which opened in 2006 to produce gumbase and encapsulated sweeteners for the Mondelez network, is due to close in early 2016, resulting in the loss of 45 permanent roles and 17 contracted roles.

Separately, at its chocolate manufacturing plants in Coolock, Dublin and Rathmore, Co. Kerry, the company's proposal to streamline its manufacturing business will result in the loss of approximately 160 roles across both sites.

Tallaght

The announcement for Tallaght follows an in-depth review which looked at a range of factors including the cost of production at Tallaght, which is at least twice as expensive as other similar plants.

In a statement issued from Mondelez today, the company added that global demand for gum is declining and the development of a new, superior technology for the production of end-to-end gum products supersedes the current technology in Tallaght.

Coolock and Rathmore factories

As for the Coolock and Rathmore factories, Mondelez proposes to invest €11.7 million in new chocolate making technology to enable Coolock to concentrate production on core chocolate brands - Cadbury Dairy Milk 8-square, Flake, Twirl and Boost.

From the end of 2015 the Coolock factory will no longer produce wafer brands Time Out and Pink Snack, sales of which have been in decline for a number of years.

This proposed investment and a wider efficiency programme in both sites will result in these factories' job losses.

Deirdre Harte, corporate affairs manager with Mondelez Ireland, told the Irish Farmers Journal that the majority of the job losses would take place at Coolock, in Dublin. The primary reason for the proposed job losses is the discontinuation of the Time-Out brand.

She said that production would continue for the remainder of this year and that it is unlikely to impact of milk volumes. She also stated that as the Time-Out brand is a relatively small brand it is unlikely to affect quantities in the longer term coming from the chocolate crumb facility in Rathmore. She reiterated that the planned investment in Rathmore is continuing.

Milk from Irish farmers

The Rathmore factory relies on 70 million annual litres of fresh Irish milk from Munster farmers as a core ingredient in its chocolate crumb production. Last year Mondelez announced a €4.4 million investment in Rathmore to support milk processing on site.