UNITED KINGDOM/GERMANY
Imperial sheds jobs with plant closures

Imperial Tobacco Group, the world's fourth largest cigarette firm, is to close its plants at Liverpool in England and Lahr in Germany with the loss of 415 jobs as it aims to streamline production in Europe.

Imperial, which makes Lambert & Butler and Richmond cigarettes in Britain and West and Davidoff in Germany, said the closures would take place by March 2007 and were expected to generate annual cost savings of around 7 million pounds from its 2007/2008 financial year.
Its operations in Liverpool, which predominantly packs Golden Virginia fine cut tobacco, will be transferred to factories in Nottingham in central England and Mullingar in Ireland with the loss of all 140 jobs in Liverpool, and comes after the decline in consumption of pipe and snuff tobacco.
Imperial had already announced job cuts in March at its plant in Lahr in south-west Germany near the French border, after a ruling by the European Court of Justice which prompted it to halt the manufacture of so-called singles products.
Singles had been a rapidly growing area of the tobacco market in Germany, as the pre-rolled cartridges of tobacco which were inserted by smokers into cigarette paper tubes were taxed less than cigarettes before the European ruling.
Last month, Germany decided to apply the ruling to filterless eco or economy cigarillos and so they will be taxed similar to cigarettes rather than at a lower rate of cigars.
Imperial says the ending of this production will make the Lahr plant unsustainable and the remaining cigarillos production will be transferred to other Imperial plants in Germany. The Lahr plant will close with the loss of all 275 jobs.
The cost savings for Imperial come on top of those announced in March from the loss of jobs at Lahr, which it said at the time would lead to annual cost savings of around 4 million pounds from its 2006/2007 financial year. (pi)

Want to read the latest TJI?

Industrie.de Infoservice
Vielen Dank für Ihre Bestellung!
Sie erhalten in Kürze eine Bestätigung per E-Mail.
Von Ihnen ausgesucht:
Weitere Informationen gewünscht?
Einfach neue Dokumente auswählen
und zuletzt Adresse eingeben.
Wie funktioniert der Industrie.de Infoservice?
Zur Hilfeseite »
Ihre Adresse:














Die Konradin Verlag Robert Kohlhammer GmbH erhebt, verarbeitet und nutzt die Daten, die der Nutzer bei der Registrierung zum Industrie.de Infoservice freiwillig zur Verfügung stellt, zum Zwecke der Erfüllung dieses Nutzungsverhältnisses. Der Nutzer erhält damit Zugang zu den Dokumenten des Industrie.de Infoservice.
AGB
datenschutz-online@konradin.de