AT its peak, the WD & HO Wills cigarette factory in Glasgow’s Alexandra Parade employed some 3,500 people and produced 260 million cigarettes a week.
But cigarette manufacture ceased in 1983, and cigar manufacture was transferred to it from Bristol. In May 1990 Imperial Tobacco, Britain’s biggest cigarette and cigar maker, announced the closure of the Wills cigar factory, with the loss of all 530 jobs as part of a pre-European Single Market rationalisation designed to make the company ‘’the most efficient tobacco manufacturer in Europe.’’
Job losses were also announced at plants in Ipswich and Bristol. The news came as an unpleasant shock to the workforce.
One Scottish union leader told the Glasgow Herald: “It was a complete bombshell, even in such a highly competitive industry.”
In the mid-1990s the disused building was used as the production office for the Trainspotting film. Many of its scenes were shot there, too. In 1999 it was reported that developers were to turn the factory into offices.
‘’Previous proposals for this building have included demolition to create a student village, or redevelopment as yuppie loft apartments,” the developer said.
“We’re not going to demolish it. We love the building, we’re going to give it a cuddle and restore it to its former glory.”
Today the building houses City Park, with 21 blue-chip tenants and 3,200 workers.
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