US HEADQUARTERED ELECTRONIC display system firm, Daktronics has announced the closure of its manufacturing facility in Ennistymon in north Clare with the loss of over 100 jobs.

In an announcement on Wednesday, Daktronics stated that the company will begin to exit its manufacturing operations here with the closure of its Ennistymon plant anticipated to be substantially complete by mid-fiscal 2028.

The move to shut down the Ennistymon facility follows Daktronics’ decision to exit from the highly customized portion of its International Transportation business, which serves rail, bus and roadway customers outside of North America.

The company stated that the action “is intended to reduce fixed costs with a low or negative return outlook and improve manufacturing utilisation across the company’s global manufacturing network”.

President and chief executive of Daktronics, Ramesh Jayaraman, stated that “exiting Ireland and aligning our manufacturing capacity will help us manage factory utilisation across the network more effectively, improve workforce productivity, set the stage for further automation, and streamline procurement initiatives.” 

He added: “We are taking these steps to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”

Vice President for International Markets at Daktronics Judd Guthmiller said that “it is with deep regret that we make today’s announcement”.

Guthmiller stated that “this has been a very difficult decision and has not been taken lightly, but market realities have made it unavoidable.”

He said: “It does not diminish the enormous contribution our Irish colleagues have made to the company and to our customers, and our focus now is on supporting the team through the closure process in the best way possible.”

Today’s announcement followed the company confirming at the start of September that it was entering a collective redundancy consultation after it informed its employees that their positions were at risk.

In a statement today, the company stated the Ireland phased-exit is expected to result in $13.5 million (€12.07 million) of cumulative pre-tax charges, including employee-related costs, facility wind-down and equipment-transfer costs, and potential asset impairments.

The company stated that it expects to recognise approximately $5.3 million (€4.74 million) of related restructuring charges in Q2 of fiscal 2027, with the remaining costs, largely severance, charged in subsequent quarters as incurred through the completion of the phased exit.

Daktronics stated that when fully implemented, the Ireland action is expected to generate $7.7 million (€6.88 million) of annualised pre-tax savings which it stated will fully offset the associated implementation costs in less than two years, “while contributing to the Company’s broader structural cost reduction and margin improvement objectives”.

The most recent accounts for Daktronics Ireland Co Ltd show that the company was profitable.

The accounts show that for the 12 months to the end of April 2025, the firm recorded a pre-tax profit of €586,003 as revenues decreased by 8.5pc from €17.98 million to €16.44 million.

The company at the end of April 2025 employed 116, and staff costs for the year totalled €6.49 million.