Ballymena Retailers Fear JTI Closure

Retailers throughout Ballymena have expressed their concern about the proposed closure of JTI’s Lisnafillen plant just outside the town centre.

Following JTI Gallaher’s announcement earlier this month, as many as 900 jobs could be lost at the plant which will have a severe effect on footfall in Ballymena town centre.

JTI cited a challenging economic  environment, excise tax pressure coupled with illegal trade has triggered industry volume contraction” in Europe, adding: “This is compounded by the need to comply with legislation, including the revised EU tobacco products directive (TPD2), which will significantly reduce the number of pack formats to be produced for various markets. This inevitably has led to the need to review JTI’s manufacturing operations.”

North Antrim MP Ian Paisley described the announcement as “devastating news”. He criticised those he accused of calling for “overregulation” of the industry in the EU.

And the word ‘devastating’ is echoing around the Co Antrim town as retailers say the closure will suck money out of the local economy; money that would be spent in their retail outlets. Since the announcement by JTI, Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Arlene Foster and Employment and Learning Minister, Stephen Farry have met with representatives of

JTI Gallaher to discuss the way forward should the company’s recent proposal and consultation result in the closure of the plant post-2016. However, this hasn’t reassured retailers who are already suffering from a lack of footfall in Ballymena along with the proposal for a huge out of town retail development in Galgorm.

Ballymena town major, Audrey Wales – who was involved in various retail ventures in the mid-ulster town with her husband Chris for around 30 years – has been left angered by the announcement.

“I was absolutely devastated to hear the news that we were losing JTI Gallaher from our borough”, she told NR. “The factory has been here since 1941 and that’s going to take almost £90m spend out of Northern Ireland. We have almost £60m coming from salaries from JTI itself but there then are the 300 small businesses that support JTI. Whether you’re a taxi driver and you’re taxiing their staff; you’re supplying all the electrical fittings to their premises or whatever, it’s all those local businesses that are going to suffer as a result of the JTI closure – not to mention their families.”

On the high street, the disappointment is in the air as this is another body blow to hit the town’s retailers who have navigated their way through the worst recession in decades. Prominent retailer Trevor Barr, who has campaigned on behalf of his fellow traders on numerous issues over the years is expecting shop doors to close in the town.

He told NR: “With Ballymena sitting at a very high vacancy rate in the town centre this can only do one thing- close more shops. People have less money to spend and when people have less money to spend the shops close and the footfall falls in the town centre.

He continued: “This affects the small stores in Ahoghill and Galgorm as well. To me, this is disastrous for Ballymena and there are a lot of people involved. It will be a couple of years before this really starts to take affect but the knock on effect right now is that things will be winding down before they close the doors in two years’ time.”

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