Thomas Gallaher founded his tobacco factory in Derry in 1857. It relocated to Belfast in 1881. By the early 1900s, Gallahers was the largest tobacco factory in the world. Among other brands, it produced Park Drive, Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut cigarettes. By 1965, Gallahers employed 15,000 people but as cigarette sales began to decline, this dwindled to 800 by the time the factory closed in 1988.