![\"Kostal\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/a2cb6ba0-9773-4739-8816-41ab3789d171.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBreaking\u00a0|\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many workers from north Kerry and Limerick are employed at the plant\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kostal<\/p>\n
Around 140 jobs are to be axed at the Kostal Abbeyfeale plant as part of the company\u2019s plans to move its operations to China later this year.<\/p>\n
The announcement was made at a special meeting between staff and management on Thursday evening. Two company directors from Germany arrived in Kerry earlier on Thursday ahead of the meeting.<\/p>\n
Confirmation of the redundancies comes as a devastatig blow to the Listowel and north Kerry region where much of the company\u2019s workforce is based.<\/p>\n
Of the 140 job losses, 95 are operator roles and 45 non-operator positions. The company\u2019s Abbeyfeale manufacturing plant will cease OBC (onboard charger) production sometime in Quarter 4 of 2026.<\/p>\n
In a WhatsApp message circulated to Kostal workers, management said the transfer decision is \u2018both significant and disappointing\u2019 for Kostal\u2019s Abbeyfeale employees.<\/p>\n
The statement added that its decision to close is no reflection whatsoever on the people employed in Kostal Ireland.<\/p>\n
Factors for the decision include availability of excess production capacity in China, and OBC products approaching end of life with no successor products for Kostal Ireland.<\/p>\n
The need to align with the company\u2019s global strategic direction for power electronics production was also cited as a reason for the closure.<\/p>\n
There are approximately 360 people still employed at Kostal Abbeyfeale.<\/p>\n
Kostal\u2019s plant in Mallow, which produces a separate line of automotive products, is not impacted by the OBC production decision.<\/p>\n
KOSTAL announced in October 2024 that it was looking to reduce its workforce by 60 after staff were issued with a letter outlining the changes. This has since been extended. <\/p>\n
The German-based company said the board\u2019s decision was \u2018not made in haste\u2019 but that KOSTAL \u2018experienced, and is experiencing challenges\u2019 due to lower sales of carlines using its OBCs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breaking\u00a0|\u00a0 Many workers from north Kerry and Limerick are employed at the plant Kostal Around 140 jobs are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,16585],"class_list":["post-282740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-stephen-fernane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}