British American Tobacco to close Guildford Depository

British American Tobacco plc has announced that it will close its Guildford Depository on 31st October 2015.

The publicly accessible Depository was established in 1999 as part of the settlement in a US lawsuit entitled State of Minnesota v. Philip Morris, et al. British American Tobacco was released from any requirement to maintain the Depository in 2011.

A British American Tobacco spokesperson said:

“British American Tobacco has not been legally obliged to keep the Guildford Depository open for several years and it is a facility that is expensive to maintain.

“The vast majority of documents in the Guildford Depository are available online via third party websites and we haven’t received any visitors to the site in over three years.

“That said, we hope that by providing three months’ notice, anyone interested in visiting the site will have the opportunity to do so before it closes.”

The Guildford Depository will close on 31st October 2015. All documents will be moved to a long-term storage facility and retained.