More than 100 workers waived “We want our job” and “Resignation for the Bulgartabak board of directors” slogans during a protest on February 15 2008, held outside the Stara Zagora cigarette plant, investor.bg reported.

The workers argued that there was no reason to shut down the plant, which they believe to be profitable. A day earlier, workers agreed to hold a rally on February 19 outside the Bulgartabac Holding headquarters and the Ministry of Economy and Energy in Sofia protesting against the holding company's decision to revoke the plant's licence to produce brands owned by Bulgartabac.

Earlier this week, Bulgartabac Holding said it decided to revoke the licences of the Plovdiv and Stara Zagora-based factories to produce proprietary Bulgartabac-branded cigarettes. However, the factories would retain their licences to make tobacco products.

Despite the fact that Bulgartabac trade unions strongly disagreed with the halting of operations at both factories, the management of the holding argued that the company had no choice.

Bulgartabac CEO Hristo Lachev said that should all its four factories remain operational, the holding would finish the year with a net loss and there would be nothing left to privatise.

The factories in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora ended 2007 with a profit of 2.5 million leva and three million leva, respectively. The profit figures, however, came chiefly from cash injections from the two profit-making enterprises in Sofia and Blagoevgrad, Lachev said.