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.
Nestle, one of the world’s largest producers of food, will invest UAH 700 million in the reconstruction and modernization of Mivina factory in Kharkiv. Nestle CEO for Ukraine and Moldova Ansgar Bornemann and Head of Kharkiv Regional State Administration Yulia Svetlychna said this during a press briefing in Kharkiv.
“The company began preparations for the modernization of Mivina factory in 2015. The final project plan was approved in early 2018. The main goal is to develop the factory, improve working conditions and increase the competitiveness of products,” the Nestle official said.
According to him, the project will be implemented in two stages by transforming the existing logistics center into a production facility with the subsequent development of all necessary infrastructure and transferring production lines to new premises.
“Reconstruction will help not only modernize the enterprise but also improve the technology of production. Updating the recipe for Mivina products, in particular reducing fat content in products, will allow meeting the criteria for assessing the nutrition foundation of Nestle products, which are based on dietary recommendations of the World Health Organization,” Bornemann noted. The head of the Kharkiv administration, in turn, reported that almost half of the products produced at the Kharkiv factory are exported to 17 countries in Europe and the world.
The company plans to complete all the stages of reconstruction and commission the updated enterprises by 2021.
