The St. Petersburg Times
#1045, Friday, February 18, 2005
Phillip Morris Plans 40% Boost This Year
THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
The Leningrad Oblast’s Phillip Morris plant will become the largest
tobacco factory in Russia by increasing production by 40 percent in
2005, up from the 50 billion cigarettes output last year, the company
said this week.
The increased capacity will come from an additional 50,000 square meter
facility that the company’s management hopes will be finished by the
end of this year, Guy Guffers, Phillip Morris’ production director,
said Tuesday at a news conference.
The new facility, which began construction in 2002, will include
a new processing line and a warehouse. The total cost of expansion
works is estimated at $240 million, Guffers said.
The Phillip Morris Izhora (PMI) factory was built in the Lomonosov
district of the Leningrad Oblast in 2000 with an initial investment
of $360 million. The factory is a fully-owned subsidiary of Phillip
Morris and produces the Marlboro, Parliament, Virginia Slims, L&M,
Chesterfield and Bond Street brands.
The company said no further expansion will be discussed until full
capacity levels are reached at the factory by the end of the year,
Phillip Morris operates two factories in Russia, one in Krasnodar and
the Leningrad Oblast plant from which it also exports cigarettes to
Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Moldova and Kazakhastan.
PMI was the largest taxpayer in the Leningrad Oblast in 2004,
transferring over 1.5 billion rubles ($54 million) to the local budget
– something that the oblast’s Governor Valery Serdyukov said he’s be
loathe to lose, even though he disapproves of smoking himself.
“I believe that smoking is bad. But if one has the habit, it is
better to smoke quality cigarettes,” said Serdyukov as reported by
Delovoi Peterburg.
“Once everybody stops smoking, though, we will find something else
for the factory to produce.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress