Xerox is to close its small office/home office (SOHO) business after failing to secure enough investment to turn the loss-maker around.


There will be a number of redundancies at its manufacturing plant in Dundalk.


Xerox predicted that the closure of the business, set up in 1997, would save over 71.5m ($100m) a year.


President and chief operating officer Anne Mulcahy said the market for ink-jet had "changed dramatically" in a short period of time and that the slowdown would continue.


Joe Kelly, corporate communications manager for Europe, said: "We were midway through a profit and loss curve, but had planned for it as part of the business model. We had been looking for investment to carry it through until 2003, when it became profitable."


Kelly added that the move would lead to an as-yet unknown number of redundancies at its Dundalk manufacturing facility.
Xerox is in talks with 360 of the sites 1,000 employees, who could be affected, but said it wished to retain as many as possible.


Xerox will still manufacture printheads and other consumables for its SOHO hardware and continue telephone and service.