Early yesterday 19 production staff at the plant were told they no longer had a job. At least three contractors are also expected to be affected by the closure.

Boral has blamed the weak NSW housing market for the decision.

“The Kempsey brick plant has been in operation since the mid 1970s, supplying local markets as well as Sydney and Brisbane markets,” executive general manager Nick Clark said.

“But over the past five years, the NSW housing market has experienced a significant downturn and, more recently, the Queensland housing market has been in decline, which has had a serious impact on inventory at the plant. As a result, we have no choice but to stop production at Kempsey until the market recovers.”

Three years ago the plant was forced to lay-off seven staff, citing similar reasons.

Mr Clark said the plant had enough unsold stock to last for up to two years, making further production at Kempsey unworkable and unprofitable.

Six staff have been retained at the facility to operate in a sales, distribution and customer selection capacity.

The daughter of one of the workers, who wished to remain anonymous, said staff had heard rumours of the facility’s demise, but were only told of the decision to close yesterday.

“Dad rang this morning to let us know that he and the other staff had been made redundant,” she said.

“They were only told this morning, there had been rumours and whispers of the place closing down, but nothing solid until today.

“The employees at Boral are all mostly 50 plus and will find it hard to find work.”

A spokesperson for Boral confirmed staff had only been told of the closure yesterday.

“Employees were informed of the decision today (July 2). Subject to the safe shutdown of equipment, they will not be asked to work out their notice period but will be paid out the notice period,” she said.

“As is always the case, we are looking at opportunities for employees to move to other divisions within Boral and we will work with affected employees to provide them with appropriate counselling and job search support.