The manufacturing division of U.S. Tobacco Cooperative (USTC), U.S. FlueCured Tobacco Growers of Timberlake, North Carolina, USA, is temporarily closing its manufacturing operations due to the coronavirus.
The Timberlake manufacturing facility will be closed from March 23 until April 6 to help combat the spread of the virus. Plans are to resume manufacturing on April 6 but could be amended based on the pandemic situation.
U.S. Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers will continue to ship orders from inventory to customers and to internal distributors and warehouses. Over the past few weeks, inventory levels have been increased to allow for this situation.
“This is a challenging time for everyone worldwide and we remain focused on protecting our employees, customers and vendors while we work our way through this pandemic,” said Oscar J. House, CEO and president of USTC.