JTI Ukraine tobacco company plans to invest $45 million in the expansion and renovation of the production facilities of its factory in Kremenchuk in 2021-2022, General Manager of Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Ukraine Paul Holloway has said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“This is the modernization of the entire production complex, and not an investment in a separate production line, as it was the case two years ago. The plans for this year are the expansion of the factory, the construction of a new warehouse, the modernization of the tobacco shop, new production lines, the modernization of buildings, structures, infrastructure and much more,” he said.
According to Holloway, the company intends to increase the export of tobacco products, and make it more efficient. An important factor that influenced the company’s plans was its obtaining the status of an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO), which will reduce customs formalities for the import of raw materials and the export of finished products.
The general manager of the company said that JTI, which received this status for the first time in Ukraine, will have a number of advantages when going through customs clearance in Ukraine, including the opportunity to use a special traffic lane for commercial vehicles.
Holloway said that in 2020, the company paid six times more dividends than in the entire history of JTI’s work in Ukraine, and the investments provided for the development of the factory will not affect the further payment of dividends to shareholders. According to him, the factory in Kremenchuk is an independent center of profit, and it will provide money that it earned earlier for investments.
JTI paid out more than UAH 300 million in dividends to shareholders for 2018-2019 and plans to pay about the same amount for 2020.
