Tobacco Plant to Close in North Carolina

Source from:  UPI 07/30/2009

It is the end of an era in Cabarrus County, N.C., where Altria is closing a cigarette factory that once employed 2,500 workers. Declining cigarette sales has prompted Altria, parent company to Philip Morris, to close the sprawling, 2,023 acre production site, the company said. The Concord plant will close down Wednesday at 9:30 p.m., the Charlotte Observer reported. Once Cabarrus County's largest taxpayer, the closure will displace the remaining 1,000 workers, at the plant, some of whom will find work at the company's plant in Richmond, Va. Cigarette sales dropped 24 percent from 1996 to 2006, the newspaper said. "For all my life, we referred to "King Tobacco," and that's no longer the case in North Carolina," Concord Mayor Scott Padgett said. Enditem