Imperial Tobacco will close its Mullingar factory due to packaging changes in the revised EU Tobacco Products Directive that increased the minimum sized for hand-rolled tobacco to 30 grammes, the Westmeath Examiner reported.

Adoption of the new minimum size from May resulted in shutdowns of several production lines at the Mullingar plant. Most of the nearly 90 employees will leave this October, the newspaper said on its website. Tobacco processing has been performed at Mullingar, west of Dublin, since 1967, according to the Examiner. Remaining production will be moved to a facility in the Netherlands.