Reuters:  The American cigarette manufacturer Reynolds has announced that it will be closing two plants.  The factories slated for closure, the Whitaker Park facility in Winston Salem, North Carolina and one in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, are two of its oldest and the closures are part of an initiative to combat declining U.S. sales of its cigarettes and pursue more aggressively the smokeless tobacco market, says a Reynolds spokesperson.

Whitaker Park employees will be transferred to facilities in Tobaccoville in an effort to consolidate resources.  Employees of the Puerto Rico plant – over 60 – will be let go.

Reynolds also announced plans to amp up production at smokeless tobacco subsidiaries in Memphis and Clarksville , Tennessee.