LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) – A Duracell battery plant will close next year at a cost of 280 jobs, though company officials blamed the decision on declining demand, not the cost of cleaning up contaminated ground.

Boston-based Gillette Co., which acquired Duracell in 1996, said Thursday it will phase out production at the factory because changes in the camera market have affected demand for the lithium batteries made there.

“Over the past several years, the imaging industry has seen dramatic declines in film-camera sales,” said Kara Salzillo, a spokeswoman for Bethel, Conn.-based Duracell. “This trend has decreased demand for lithium batteries. As a result, the decision was made to discontinue production at the Lexington plant – a facility dedicated to the production of high-power lithium batteries.”

She said the company would continue to make a limited number of lithium batteries at other plants.

Salzillo said no jobs will be lost for the next two months, and employees will receive a severance package and outplacement help.

In 1981, environmental regulators discovered that land surrounding the Duracell plant had become contaminated with mercury, cleaning solvents and potential toxins, which had leaked into nearby Abbotts Creek.

It cost the company about $19 million over 20 years to remove almost 10,000 tons of hazardous soil and another 37,000 tons of soil that was contaminated but not enough to be hazardous.

The cleanup was completed in last spring.

Steve Googe, director of the Davidson County Economic Development Commission, said county officials met with Duracell five years ago to discuss the factory’s future.

“They told us that they knew the life expectancy of the products they were making was limited, and that they were trying to bring other forms of production to the plant,” Googe said. “Evidently, the decision was made to leave things as they were, and the lack of new products led to the plant-closing decision.”

It’s the fourth manufacturing layoff in Davidson County this year, causing a cumulative loss of 545 jobs.