British American Tobacco (BAT) started contract manufacturing of its international brand, Pall Mall, with the Grodno-based tobacco plant, Neman.

To this end, a new cigarette making and packaging line has been launched with a production capacity of 8,000 cigarettes per minute. This allows the run-up to a new product launch to be reduced three or four months and thus expand contract production rapidly, as the plant’s CEO, Yuri Chernyshov, told the local media.
Pall Mall is the third BAT brand made in Grodno, after Alliance and Viceroy were launched in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Both have gained a steady position on the market and now account for 4.7 and 3.5 per cent respectively. BAT currently sells nearly 4 billion cigarettes in Belarus, of which up to 90 per cent are planned to be manufactured with Neman plant by 2008. The next brand in line is Lucky Strike, Chernyshov said, adding that the project is already in progress.