Since BAT’s acquisition, the Rovinj Tobacco Factory’s production at Kanfanar has grown by 40 percent.
Almost two years after becoming part of the British American Tobacco (BAT) multinational company, the Rovinj Tobacco Factory (TDR) has seen strong growth in production, exports and investments, but most importantly in employment as well. The Kanfanar factory has launched a recruitment process and is currently opening up 45 new jobs, bringing the number of employees in production close to 550. Since the acquisition of TDR by BAT, the factory has increased the total number of employees in all parts of its business operations by seven percent, so now the Croatian part of BAT employs the total of more than 1,700 people, reports Poslovni.hr on 11 July 2017.
The factory at Kanfanar in Istria is taking on an increasingly important place in the BAT global system, currently exporting to as many as 21 European countries, including the largest export markets of Germany and Italy. Production for Germany has exceeded the quantities produced for the Croatian market.
Over the next six months, the expansion to six additional markets is expected: Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Malta, Ireland and Latvia. In 2017, the total production will reach 9.2 billion cigarettes, which is 1.7 billion cigarettes more than when BAT took over the Croatian plant. The plans are even more ambitious, and in 2018 it is expected that the production will double.
“TDR is one of the largest Croatian exporters, with a 72 percent share of exports in the total output. In the next year, we plan to increase it to 82 percent. The export potential of the Kanfanar factory has significantly strengthened thanks to investments that amount to 25 million euros so far and will reach 40 million euros next year. The important place which Kanfanar has in the BAT system is mostly the result of our employees’ efforts since their expertise and engagement is our greatest comparative advantage,” says general manager of the BAT Adria cluster Ram Addanki.
BAT has so far invested into six new production lines at Kanfanar, the rest of the factory has been modernised, and new quality assurance and traceability systems have been introduced. The investments have allowed an increase in the production of cigarettes, but also of semi-finished products that will be exported from the Kanfanar factory in an annual quantity of about 8,000 tonnes.
The Kanfanar factory is following new trends, so the number of brand variants in production will be increased from 170 to 300, and the number of blends will be increased by as much as 200 percent.
