July 4 (SeeNews) - British American Tobacco (BAT) has said it plans to invest 60 million euro ($68.2 million) in expansion of its factory in Romania's Ploiesti, which will take on part of production from Bulgarian tobacco group Bulgartabac recently acquired by BAT.
BAT will build a new production hall and upgrade technologies throughout the factory in the city in southern Romania.
The reason for expanding the production capabilities in Romania are the gradual closure of BAT's facility in Germany, the takeover of Bulgartabac and the optimization of production volumes in Western Europe, BAT said in a press release on Monday.
Part of the manufacturing volumes of Bulgartabac will be relocated to Ploiesti, it added,
BAT completed the acquisition of leading cigarette brands of Bulgartabac for more than 100 million euro in May, after receiving final approvals from the Bulgarian authorities.
Following the expansion, the Ploiesti production unit will add 120 more employees to the existing 700 and 150 contractors and production volumes will grow by 30%.
The British American Tobacco factory in Ploiesti is currently the group's second largest in Europe.
BAT employs more than 50,000 people worldwide and its brands are sold in more than 200 markets.
($=0.879 euro)
British American Tobacco (Romania) Trading SRL is among the biggest companies in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here