Kolkata, July 23 (IANS) ITC may shut down its match box manufacturing unit in Chennai and has given voluntary retirement to all its employees, a top official said here Friday.

‘We are restructuring our matchbox business. We are cutting down on number of plants. We want to outsource it to the small scale sectors. But we want to do it gradually,’ chairman Y.C. Deveshwar told reporters during a press conference.

‘Voluntary retirement has been given to the people and they have all accepted it,’ he said.

Wimco Limited was acquired by Russell Credit Limited, a 100 percent subsidiary of ITC July 1, 2005.

He, however, clarified he has no plans to shutdown the manufacturing unit of Wimco in the city.

Deveshwar added the company might use the land of Chennai factory for some other business of the company.

He expects that the matches businesses would turnaround in 2010-11.