370 workers to lose jobs with cigarette factory closure

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has confirmed that it is halting production at its cigarette plant at Piaseczno near Warsaw. The closure of the factory will take place by the end of the year, leaving 370 workers redundant. Of the 8 billion best-selling Camel and Salem cigarettes produced at the Piaseczno plant last year, just 800 million were sold on the domestic market. "Due to the centralization of export production programs at some JTI factories, the facility in Piaseczno will not generate enough profits. In the last 18 months we have closed two other factories, in Great Britain and the Canary Islands," explained Jan Lower, JTI country manager for Poland. JTI's output currently accounts for 1.5% of the cigarettes sold on the Polish market. "We are sorry the retrenchments have hit the Piaseczno factory and that so many people will lose their jobs. We will offer them all the help we can," Lower added. The JTI management has announced plans to introduce a special program under which in the future, laid-off employees will be found new jobs within the company. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 5; Puls Biznesu, p. 9) J.K.