British American Tobacco Cyprus announced plans to shut down its factory in Nicosia, 200 or so workers to be laid off, Financial Mirror, a local business weekly, wrote earlier in November.

The reason for the decision given in a formal statement is the drastic fall of production due to the exports twofold shrinkage. ’We all worked very hard to maintain the factory in Cyprus, but the recent loss in exports, combined with the high production costs forced us to propose moving of production to other BAT’s facilities within the E.U.’, managing director Soteris Constantinou was quoted to say. He also added that a fair arrangement with the labour representatives would be reached, and talks were already under way. The quality and distribution of the company’s products were not to be affected, Mr Constantinou stressed. BAT’s operations on the Cypriot cigarette market date back to the first tobacco company established in Cyprus in 1867 which was bought by BAT and changed its name to British American Tobacco (Cyprus) in 1977. In 1999, in the wake of the global BAT/Rothmans merger, it amalgamated with another local tobacco company, Rothmans Pall Mall, and became British American Tobacco, Cyprus. The company holds a 70 per cent market share, with the smoking rate in the country coming to 27 per cent.