Altria closes up N.C. cigarette plantation

Philip Morris, also known as Altria Group, announced that it would close its cigarette plantation in Concord in three years.

2,500 people who work for this company for many years are employed at this plantation. It isn’t known how they will live after loosing their work. “It is my hope that the majority of the employees at Cabarrus will be able to relocate to Richmond,” says Mike Szymanczyk, Philip Morris USA chairman and chief executive.

As it was affirmed by company officials, closure is the result of demand on cigarettes declining in U.S. The resolution for Cabarrus County worker was found. Philip Morris Company offered them jobs in Richmond, Va., the facility, where the majority of local production will move to.

“It is my hope that the majority of the employees at Cabarrus will be able to relocate to Richmond,” Mike Szymanczyk, Philip Morris USA chairman and chief executive, says.

N.C. State University economist, Mike Walden, said that this closing will affect the Cabarrus economy. He said: “Employees at cigarette companies are "the cream of the crop" when it comes to wages. Cigarette companies are extremely profitable because they take an inexpensive product (raw tobacco) and sell it for a high price.”

Officials of Cabarrus County said that though the Philip Morris announcement is surprising, it was expected. John Cox, the president and chief executive of Cabarrus Regional Partnership maintained: “We’ve been saying for a long time that the economy of North Carolina has transitioned from textiles and tobacco to a more information-based economy. By 2011, we will have lost tobacco in Cabarrus County.”

Cox also referred to all 25,000 employees that would remain jobless and to their families. “It’s a very difficult time for us emotionally,” he says, speaking from a cell phone outside the plantation on U.S. Highway 29.

Mayor of Concord, Scott Padgett, presents analogically sad reaction affirming:” We are saddened by the news that one of our most vital industries is closing its doors. Carrying out any industry closure, our first thoughts must be about the people who are losing their jobs.”

News about closing the cigarette plantation roused all the community. Bonnie Silvers, the owner of Sweet Pea Café on Union Street in Concord, says: “Many Cabarrus-area families depend on income from the plantation. It’s really sad for those people. It’s going to be a detriment to the community.”

“Subdued” is the word that describes the reactions of employees when hear about decision admitted at a 7:15 a.m. at the Concord facility.