Close Before Striking, They Say

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.