Philip Morris International opened a $30 million cigarette factory in Ukraine’s Lviv region, creating 250 jobs, reports Interfax.
According to a company press release, the factory will have five production lines. The first started operating in May, the second should be launched in June and the rest before the end of the year, bringing the factory’s annual production capacity to 10 billion cigarettes, enough to meet the Ukrainian demand.
PMI has no plans to export from the facility, which currently employs about 100 people from the company’s Kharkiv factory, which was mothballed in the wake of Russia’s 2022 military invasion.
PMI has invested about $750 million in Ukraine since entering the market in 1994.
Before opening the Lviv facility, PMI supplied to Ukraine from eight factories outside the country.
The company reduced shipments to Ukraine by 30.1 percent to 11.07 billion cigarettes and heated-tobacco units in 2022. In 2023, it increased shipments to the country by 8.4 percent.
The cigarette manufacturer controls almost a quarter of the Ukrainian cigarette market.