Close Before Striking, They Say
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LONDON — The lights are dimming on the match industry in its country of origin with the decline in smoking and the rise of cheap disposable lighters.
The 151-year-old Bryant & May company said it will close its last British factory by the end of the year, with a loss of 96 jobs in Liverpool.
The match was invented in 1827 by John Walker, a chemist in the northeast English town of Stockton-on-Tees. So Bryant & May’s announcement that production would move to Sweden prompted elegies by British media.
“From next year, all those gallant names--England’s Glory, Scottish Bluebell, Swan Vestas--will come out of a place called Tidaholm” in Sweden, lamented the Independent newspaper.
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