Nottingham Factory Shutdown Marks Last Gasp of Once Thriving British Tobacco Industry

Source from:  Daily Mail  04/17/2014

The Imperial Tobacco factory in Nottingham is to close, meaning the loss of more than 500 jobs and the end of the Britain's tobacco industry.

Imperial's production plant and distribution centre, which dates back 137 years and produces tobacco for brands including Golden Virginia and Lambert & Butler, will shut with the loss of 540 jobs, it was announced yesterday.

The cost-cutting decision - Imperial will move its production to other European factories - means the end of one of the last bastions of British manufacturing.

Cigarette production was a stalwart for cities across Britain, providing jobs for generation after generation, from its earliest introduction to the UK in the late 16th century.

But for the last four decades, it has been an industry in decline.  Smoking peaked in the UK in 1974, and as smokers either cut down or gave up, with many switching to smoke-free e-cigarettes, manufacturers in Britain have steadily reduced their workforces.

Now only Japan Tobacco International (JTI)'s Gallaher cigarette plant in Lisnafallan, Northern Ireland, remains.

Imperial chief executive Alison Cooper said the Nottingham closures were part of a money-saving drive to save £300million a year from September 2018.

She said: 'The prospect of job losses is always regrettable and we will be doing all we can to support employees and ensure that they are treated in a fair and responsible manner.'

Imperial, which also makes Gauloises and Davidoff cigarettes, said cigarette production in Europe was declining due to 'tough economic conditions', as well as increased regulation, higher taxes and smuggling.　

The company also announced the closure of sites in France including a factory in Nantes and a research and development facility in Bergerac, taking the total job losses to 900. 

The Nottingham and French plants will close over the next two years, and production will be relocated to factories in Germany and Poland, with distribution being outsourced.

France's cigarette market has suffered along with the rest of Europe, with sales almost half what they were in 2000.  Cigarette sales in Britain have gone down by 42 per cent in the same period.

Imperial, the world's fourth-largest international tobacco company by market share, aims to launch two electronic cigarettes this year. They are safer than traditional cigarettes but also face the prospect of additional government regulation.

The company, which has 46 manufacturing sites and 35,000 staff in 160 countries, closed a cigar factory in Bristol in 2010.

The GMB union, which represents tobacco workers in Nottingham, said the announcement was a devastating blow to the workforce and the city's economy.

Union official Chris Needham said: 'GMB will oppose this closure as we believe the work of producing 17billion cigarettes in Nottingham each year is being migrated east to the Polish factory as a cynical ploy to increase profits and for no other reason.

'This company made no less than £3.18billion profits last year and to make even more money it is simply walking away from Nottingham. This is not acceptable.'

Smoking is the biggest single cause of illness and premature death in the UK, and causes the death of 100,000 people in Britain every single year.

A dying habit: The rise and fall of the tobacco industry in Britain

First introduced to Britain in 1586 by colonists from Virginia in the US, tobacco was initially criticised by King James I who, in his 1602 pamphlet A Counterblaste To Tobacco, claimed that smoking was a sin.

But despite his best attempts, the popularity of tobacco spread, and its alleged health-giving powers meant it was sold not only at taverns but at chemists, too. 

It rose in fashion during the 17th and 18th centuries, and duty on tobacco rose accordingly as the Government came to value tobacco excise as a valuable source of income.

With the tobacco being imported from overseas, major ports such as London, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow became centres of the cigarette manufacturing industry.

In Bristol, Wills & Co - founded in 1786 - was one of the biggest tobacco firms, and one of the first to make cigarettes.  As the firm grew, so did the number of people it employed, and the company pioneered worker benefits such as health care, paid holidays and canteens.

Liverpool had the Ogden Tobacco Company,  while in Glasgow two 'tobacco lairds', William Glassford and William Cunninghame, made a fortune importing tobacco from the colonies.

Imperial's history in Nottingham dates back to 1877, when John Player bought a small tobacco manufacturing business in Broad Marsh. It has been at its current site in the city since 1972.

In 1876 Benson & Hedges received its first royal warrant from Edward, Prince of Wales, and by the 1880s, tobacco manufacturers in London alone were estimated to make up a quarter of all the manufacturers in Britain.

In 1902 British American Tobacco (BAT) was formed as a joint venture between Britain's Imperial Tobacco Company and the American Tobacco Company.  But ten years later, the first connection was made between smoking and lung cancer by a Doctor I Adler.

It didn't stop cigarettes being included in soldiers' ration packs during the First World War, though, while manufacturer Philip Morris started targeting women with their cigarette advertising in 1925.

By the 1950s, medical studies found a definite link between smoking and lung cancer, and by 1971 all packets of cigarettes sold in the UK had to carry health warnings.

The first National No Smoking Day was organised in 1989, and in July 2007 a ban on smoking in pubs, bars, restaurants and all enclosed workplace came into force.

Cigarette sales, which peaked in Britain in 1974, fell from 94.4billion in the UK in 1991 to 55.5billion in 2001 and 42billion in 2011 thanks to increased awareness of associated health risks, as well at tighter advertising regulations and higher tax.

Cigarette Cards: Functional Cards Turned Collectors' Items

Initially included in cigarette packs to stiffen the packaging, cigarette cards soon became desirable in their own right as people sought to collect full sets.

While early versions simply bore the cigarette manufacturer's logo or name, they were soon released in thematic sets, with, for example, famous footballers or battleships drawn on them.

In Britain, the Bristol-based Wills firm introduced cigarette cards first, in 1887, followed by John Player & Sons in 1893 and Liverpool's Ogden a couple of years after that.

Cards typically came in sets of 25 or 50, and complete sets would sell for large sums at specialist auctions, with collectors paying up to £11,000 for a single, rare card. Enditem