
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 1, 1993                   TAG: 9307010148
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BUENA VISTA FACTORY IDLES 41

Mundet-Hermetite Inc., a Buena Vista manufacturer of cigarette tipping, laid off 41 workers - about 60 percent of its work force - at noon Wednesday, the plant manager said.

John Blackburn said the company had been losing domestic business with the major tobacco companies for a year and a half. That, coupled with smaller-than-expected export sales and high levels of inventory, forced the company to cut costs.

Mundet-Hermetite, which also runs a plant in Colonial Heights and a warehouse in Lexington, is one of only four manufacturers nationwide that produce cigarette tipping - the paper that surrounds cigarette filters - Blackburn said.

The company's owner, Woodrow Brown Jr. of Richmond, declined to comment on the layoffs.

At least one U.S. tobacco company, which Blackburn would not identify, stopped using Mundet-Hermetite's product. The company is looking strongly to foreign markets, he said.

"The bottom line is that it's a business decision that we had to do," Blackburn said.

Workers were laid off according to seniority. Some hourly workers with 20 years of experience were let go, he said.

The plant was to be shut down for two weeks for annual maintenance. The idled workers were to receive pay for Wednesday, Thursday and the upcoming two weeks, which would have been considered a vacation.

Blackburn said he did not know when or if the workers would be called back, although a union contract stipulates that their jobs be held for a year.

"I feel very badly for a lot of these folks that are going to be looking at having to make it off unemployment for a while," Blackburn said. "Buena Vista is not the cornucopia of the job market."

by CNB