BAT Russia announced a US$ 170 million investment plan for the company’s three cigarette making plants by the year 2014, in addition to the US$ 520 million that has been invested since 1997.

US$ 90 million is to be invested in the St-Petersburg production facility as part of the plan’s first stage. According to BAT Russia’s production director Andrew Hopkins, 115 billion cigarettes are planned to be produced by BAT’s Russian facilities by 2009, the increase accounted for by the St-Petersburg factory above all. The program provides for a 7,800 square metres enlargement of the floor area of the facility, so that to bring its annual capacity to 40 billion sticks by 2009. The second stage of the program is meant for the period till 2014 and aimed at further raise in the production rate. BAT Russia is one of the continuous market leaders showing impressive growth over the past few years. In particular, the sales volume have increased by 10 per cent since last January, the company now accounting for 20 per cent of the market, says managing director John Taylor. BAT Russia inaugurated its new logistics center in St. Petersburg, a manufacturing and warehousing complex of 27 thousand square metres that is the biggest construction project of British American Tobacco in Europe with the investments exceeding US$ 20 million. (vt)