Philip Morris International (PMI) has launched a new $3 million production system in its factory in Niš, which completely 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 modernising existing production capacities, to follow the multi-year trend of export growth from a factory in Niš. Only during this period, the sale of cigarettes to foreign markets increased almost four times – from 6.9 billion cigarettes in 2014 to 25 billion in 2017.
Aleksandar Jakovljević, Philip Morris General Manager for Southeast Europe, said that the company would continue to actively work to improve the factory’s production performance, which is already one of the most modern in the Philip Morris’s global network, and that is why 80% of all cigarettes produced in Niš 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 Jakovljević, 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.