Athlone Mail Centre jobs are secured

The immediate future of the Athlone Mails Centre is secure after An Post this morning announced the closure of the Cork Mails Centre.

The likely closure of one of the country's four mail centres has been in the news in recent years as An Post grappled with a continuing decline in letter volumes.
The mail centres are located in Athlone, Portlaoise, Dublin, and Cork, and, at various times, there were fears over the future of the centres in Athlone and Portlaoise.

An Post's decision to close the Cork centre now means the other centres are secure for the short to medium term.

The decision to reduce letter processing capacity in line with global industry trends, and switching investment into its e-commerce/parcels network in Cork means the closure of the Cork Mails Centre in Little Island, Cork with the loss of 216 jobs (affecting 240 people).

An Post said currently the Cork plant is operating at below 25% capacity as mail volumes decline at about 7% per annum due to customers moving from the old world of letters to the new world of parcels and e-commerce. The closure will be phased between September 2019 and March 2020

An Post is engaged with the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) to ensure the best possible outcome for all the CMC staff. The closure of a mail centre was considered by the Labour Court in its Recommendation of September 2017.  

The €11m annual savings from the plant closure will enable An Post to invest more rapidly in its parcels infrastructure nationally, locally, and in the automation of parcel sorting.  Parcel volumes have grown by 60% since An Post actively re-entered the parcels market in 2017.

An Post plans to invest over €15m in parcels infrastructure across Cork City and the wider region over the next three years: