New Tobacco Industry Production Hall in Hungary

Continental Tobacco Ltd. has completed a capacity expansion project worth HUF 9.2 billion in Sátoraljaújhely, NE Hungary. Some 40% of the costs have been borne by Hungarian taxpayers as HUF 3.6 billion comes in funding from the state.

At the handover ceremony, Finance Minister Mihály Varga recalled that the Sátoraljaújhely-based company is present in 30 countries, directly employing 500 people and indirectly 4,000.

Csaba Füzi, CEO of Continental Tobacco, said that the current owners of the factory had invested more than HUF 27 billion forints since its inception, but without the state support, they would not have been able to carry out a construction project on such a large scale.

The largest element of the investment, 41% of the total cost has been spent the new three-story hall equipped with modern industrial technology.

Almost 39% of the total amount was spent on equipment for the modern tobacco preparation plant, which will contribute greatly to the company maintaining the pace of development it has achieved over the past 15 years.

According to publicly available company data, the company's net sales last year rose to over HUF 56.4 billion from HUF 47 billion the year before, while its after-tax income increased by more than HUF 350 million to HUF 6.355 billion.