Altadis is going to invest over Euro 20 million in the development of Balkan Star (BS), the group’s facility located in Yaroslavl, the plant’s general director Andreas Seemüller announced.

His strategy pursues stabilisation of the company’s position on the market where BS’ share has been shrinking continuously over the past couple of years, after the plant was acquired by the Franco-Spanish tobacco group in late 2004. Last year, Balkan Star posted a 5.7 per cent market share, a noticeable drop from the 8 per cent registered in 2003. The plant’s warehouse being overstocked, production has been curtailed dramatically since the beginning of the year, Seemüller admitted. According to the development plan, the Yaroslavl facility now focusing on cheap products will produce cigarettes of all price segments except super-premium by the year 2009. Altadis agrees to spend Euro 22 to 23 million to purchase up-to-date machinery and promote new product brands in Russia, Andreas Seemüller said. (vt)