BELFAST: Northern Ireland's only brewery is to close with the loss of up to 85 jobs after failing to find a buyer, its Belgian owner Interbrew says.

The Bass Ireland Ulster Brewery has been brewing beer at the site in Andersonstown, in west Belfast, for 107 years, but its future has been in doubt since it lost a profitable bottling contract with the Lucozade sports drink earlier this year.

"The conclusion of the bottling contract in December (2004) and the resulting increased costs to the remaining brewery and kegging operations, along with a general overcapacity within the industry, meant that a viable manufacturing operation would no longer be sustainable," said Interbrew UK supply chain director David Randall in a statement on Tuesday.

"That situation and the lack of a suitable purchaser have resulted in today's announcement."

The brewery, which makes Bass ale and Tennent's lager and kegs Stella Artois, is the largest private employer in west Belfast, an area of high unemployment.

Located in a Catholic heartland of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), it was also one of the few employers in the city where Catholics and Protestants continued to work side-by-side throughout Northern Ireland's decades-long sectarian conflict.

Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, said the decision was a blow to the regeneration of the area.

"Over the past year we met with Interbrew, the British and Irish governments, potential buyers and worked with local trade unions to try and save these jobs," he said. "I continued to speak with Interbrew right up to last night."

27 August, 2004