Philip Morris International (PMI) has launched a new $ 3 million production system in its factory in Nis, which fully automates the management of finished products. This new investment is part of a three-year investment cycle worth a total of $ 44 million, aimed at launching new and modernizing existing production capacities, in order to flush the multi-year trend of export growth from a factory in Nis. Only during this period, the sale of cigarettes to foreign markets increased almost 4 times – from 6.9 billion cigarettes in 2014 to 25 billion in 2017.
Filip Moris, General Manager of Southeast Europe, Aleksandar Jakovljevic, said that the company will continue to actively work to improve the factory’s production performance, which is already one of the most modern in the global network of Filip Moris, and that is why 80% of all cigarettes produced in Nis last year ended in about 50 markets around the world.
“The last investment that automated and modernized the system for managing finished products, not only optimized logistics, but greatly contributed to safety at work,” said Jakovljevic, emphasizing that the introduction of this modern plant will not reduce the need for employee involvement, but open the possibility of increasing the envisaged volume of production and exports.
Filip Moris company privatized 15 years ago the largest Serbian tobacco factory – DIN “Fabrika duvana” a.d. Nis (DIN). Since that year, Filip Moris has invested 853 million dollars in his Serbian branch, leaving him one of the largest investors in the country. Filip Moris, as the leader in the domestic market of conventional cigarettes, but also the first company that launches IQOS, has brought advanced heat-not-burn products to the market, directly employs 900 people in Serbia, indirectly more than 3,000 people, and only in 2017 the state budget paid $ 500 million.