La Seita presented to staff representatives a plan to close the last cigarette factory in France, Furiani in Upper Corsica, which employs 29 people, the manufacturer told us.
In mid-October, negotiations will begin with staff representatives for a closure of the Corsican tobacco factory (Macotab) previously scheduled for December, Cyril Lalo, director of foreign relations at La Seita, told AFP, confirming information from Corsica. Matin.
This closure, which will occur within the framework of “a project to reorganize part of the activities in Europe”, is motivated by “a continuous decrease in legal volumes of tobacco, which are being replaced by smuggling and counterfeiting” , “a denunciation of the contract of Philip Morris, for whom Macotab produced part of the volumes” and “the gradual end of the Corsican specificity on tobacco products”, lists Cyril Lalo.
Most of the current manufacturing takes place in Germany and Poland.
A project to close the Coretab packaging factory in Reunion is also planned, affecting 14 positions, according to the same source.
The Corsican factory, the last to manufacture cigarettes in France since the closure of the Riom factory (Puy-de-Dôme) in 2016, today employs about 30 employees in 10,000 square meters, compared to 143 in the early 1980s.
Most cigarette manufacturing in Europe today takes place in Germany and Poland.
Created in 1961, it belongs to the Seita group (Société d’exploitation industrial des tabacs et des Allettes), a former French tobacco monopoly privatized in 1995, a subsidiary of the British giant Imperial Brands, and produces cigarettes for Corsica and other French countries. regions.
France banned tobacco advertising and many factories closed, transforming into cultural places (Marseille) or even universities (Lyon).
Tobacco “is the leading cause of preventable mortality” in France, according to Public Health France, which estimates the number of deaths due to tobacco at 75,000 a year.
Source: BFM TV
