Benin to shut tobacco manufacturing company
Cotonou, Benin – Offices of cigarette manufacturers, British American Tobacco, situated in Ouidah, a former slave trade post located at 50 km from Cotonou, will be closed 31 October, official sources told PANA here Thursday.
The decision by officials of the company, which supplies several countries in the sub-region, including Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, follows the persistent drop in production since 2006.
With a capacity to produce one billion cigarettes per year, the company only produced 490 million cigarettes in 2008 and even fewer in 2009.
In view of these developments, the company, in 2006, lost its customers in the sub-region.
The company said, however, that 33 of its workers affected by the closure, would be given new jobs and their entitlements paid accordingly.
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