Almost 80 workers at the former Smurfit Tobacco Products packaging plant will lose their jobs in the new year, The Irish Times learned last night.

Amcor Rentsch in Glasnevin, Dublin, a subsidiary of Amcor Rentsch Europe, will close on April 30th with the loss of 77 jobs. The company, which produces cigarette boxes, last night blamed an ongoing decline in tobacco sales in Ireland and Britain for the closure.

In a statement, it said that it was experiencing falling demand in the British and Irish markets traditionally supplied from Dublin. "These developments have made it impossible to arrange and maintain a stable and viable future production for the Dublin site," the company said.

"The employees of the Dublin plant, local authorities and unions have been informed about this decision. Details of the redundancy process will be discussed locally over the coming weeks."

The plant's closure will be phased. The company plans to end production of one line at the end of next month. It will cease production of its second and final line in April.

Its most recent accounts show that Amcor Rentsch Dublin was profitable up to 18 months ago, but margins were coming under pressure. Profits before tax fell by almost 25 per cent in the year to June 30th, 2002 to €992,000 from €1.27 million.

Turnover slipped from €26 million to €25 million, but the fall in operating costs failed to keep pace, dropping to €21.3 million from €21.7 million. Costs and goodwill write-offs increased to €2.6 million from €2million.

Formerly known as Smurfit Tobacco Products, Jefferson Smurfit Group owned the business up to the late 1990s, when it was sold for an undisclosed sum to Amcor Rentsch, the European arm of Australian packaging giant Amcor. Its Belfast plant laid off 50 of its 110-strong workforce three years ago.

The parent company had sales this year of 11 billion Australian dollars (€6.5 billion). Four months ago it announced that profits for the year to the end of last June were up 35 per cent to A$379 million.

Amcor is a global company with facilities in Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas. It produces a wide range of packaging and bottling products. However, its European business is focused on producing packaging for tobacco products and on speciality cartons, particularly for the cosmetics market. The company is trying to develop the latter market, as tobacco sales continue to fall.