UK cigarette factory closing

Production at Imperial Tobacco’s factory at Nottingham, England, is due to end today after more than 40 years.

The closure was announced on April 15, 2014, when the factory and associated distribution center employed 540 people and was producing 17 billion cigarettes a year against a capacity of 36 billion.

Most of the 230 people who are still employed at the site will leave at the end of next week, but about 70 people will be retained until the end of next year to help with decommissioning. The timing of the shut-down has been scheduled to coincide with the last day of production for the EU market under the regulations of the first Tobacco Products Directive, which is being superseded this month.

The Nottingham closure was announced at the same time as were two in France: one of which concerned a factory at Nantes, where 320 people were employed and where nine billion cigarettes were being made annually against a capacity of 21 billion. The other closure in France concerned the Bergerac R&D facility and associated operations in Paris.

The closures were described as a restructuring aimed at saving £300 million a year from September 2018.