SANDY BAY, Hanover – Nearly 600 people are expected to lose their jobs at the end of September when 807 garment factory Jockey International Inc closes its Sandy Bay sewing plant after nine years of operations.

“The Sandy Bay plant has been a good production site for Jockey’s core cotton products since 1998, but due to a shift in consumer demand towards newer, higher engineered non-cotton products, there is a need to rebalance Jockey’s internal production of core products,” Edward Emma, president and chief operating officer for Jockey International Inc, stated in a release yesterday.

Emma said Jockey would “transfer the Sandy Bay production to its Honduras and Costa Rica plants along with increasing production with some sourcing partners in Central America”.

According to the release, although its production levels have been adjusted as part of the “rebalancing effort”, the Jockey plant in Lucea, Jamaica, would continue to produce core products.

Meanwhile, as a consequence of the planned closure of the Sandy Bay plant, operations will also cease at the company’s Millen, Georgia plant, where cloth is cut and shipped to Sandy Bay, Jamaica. The closure of the Millen, Georgia plant will leave 60 employees out of work.

Betsy Morton, Jockey International senior vice-president, human resources, made it clear yesterday that “Jockey will provide impacted employees with redundancy pay, notice pay and job skill training assistance”.

In the meantime, Lucea Mayor Vasca Brown told the Observer that he would be meeting with the management of the apparel company next Tuesday in an effort to convince them to continue operation at the Sandy Bay plant.