PMI investing in Russia

Philip Morris International intends to invest 2.49 billion rubles (US$42 million) in modernizing its factory in the Leningrad region of Russia, according to a Construction.RU story.

Construction.RU said that it had been told on Tuesday by the regional administration’s press office that the work was due to be carried out in 2017-18.

It said the project would be one of biggest to have been undertaken in the region for years.

Following completion of the modernization, Russia would follow Italy in becoming a base for the manufacture of tobacco sticks for heated-tobacco products.

Last month, PMI said that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Papastratos, had begun transforming its factory in Aspropyrgos, a suburb of Athens, Greece, into a producer of tobacco sticks to be used in PMI’s iQOS heated-tobacco product.

The plan was to use Greece as one of the PMI’s bases to produce sticks for exports to more than 30 countries by the end of 2017.