SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 12 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The company Philip Morris International (PMI) has decided to transfer part of the conventional tobacco production from its factory in Poland to Gran Canaria by Dos Santos, a company with which it has collaborated for more than a decade, and which will involve an investment of more than 15 million euros and the creation of 120 new jobs on the islands.
This was announced this Wednesday by the general director of PMI for Spain and Portugal, Enrique Jiménez, after his meeting with the president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, to whom the head of the company wanted to present all the details of this business project. The meeting was also attended by the general director of Philip Morris in the islands, Carmina Fusté, and the director of Dos Santos, Dácil Barreto.
The new production, intended to supply twelve countries of the European Union -among which are Germany, Italy, France or Belgium-, contributes a total value of over 36 million euros, thus consolidating tobacco as one of the products most exported from the islands after the banana. In fact, 84% of the total national production of tobacco products is manufactured in the Canary Islands, which represents 1% of the Canary Islands GDP and generates 5,279 jobs.
The president of the Canary Islands stressed that this commitment by Philip Morris and Dos Santos is “happy news” for the economic diversification of the islands and the production of tobacco, which he recalled has been considered since 1997 by the regional Parliament as a fundamentally strategic sector for the Canary Islands due to the employment it generates and the exports it achieves, which with this investment can be around 170 million euros, very close to what is generated by banana exports.
For his part, the general director of PMI for Spain and Portugal, Enrique Jiménez, explained that we are talking about “a large-scale operation for the factory itself, for the industrial sector of the islands and for its balance of exports, and therefore of a very positive operation, which of course is explained by the tradition that this land boasts and the innovation that Dos Santos has been able to implement, which undoubtedly make it the best option for PMI”.
For Jiménez, it is a project that can have a “very relevant” contribution to the economy of the islands and that demonstrates the “strong commitment” of Philip Morris for a “strategic” territory and that also “will help the diversification of the economy of the archipelago and will ensure that tobacco remains a strategic industrial sector on the islands”.
Meanwhile, the director of Dos Santos, Dácil Barreto, indicated that it is a great satisfaction to be the trustee of PMI and, after twelve years of collaboration, to have been chosen to take on this production after competing with four other European factories.
In this sense, he was of the opinion that this “goes to demonstrate that a company like Dos Santos, family-owned and with Canarian capital, can work with high standards in the hands of multinationals, and this is derived from the tobacco tradition of the Canary Islands industry, positioning companies from the islands at the forefront of the sector to face a highly globalized and very competitive market”.
A SMOKE-FREE FUTURE
PMI’s decision is an example of the transformation that the company is driving towards a smoke-free future, which implies that its factory in Krakow (Poland) focuses exclusively on the production of non-combustion alternatives to meet its growing demand. In the case of the Canary Islands, the production of Philip Morris will focus on making cigarillos, a product similar to a cigarette covered by a natural layer of tobacco and with a filter.
The optimization, therefore, of its processes entails the transfer of part of the production of conventional products to another center. The choice of the Canary Islands and Dos Santos comes through an internal contest to which four other factories in Europe interested in taking over the production applied.
With this commitment, PMI reinforces its commitment to the Canary Islands and consolidates its tobacco tradition, highlighting the extensive knowledge that Dos Santos possesses, a company with one hundred years of history -and 100% Canarian capital- that has demonstrated its ability to adapt to the high Philip Morris quality standards.
