With the inauguration of the new tobacco preparation plant and the modernization of the traditional production line, Continental Tobacco Group has successfully completed its nearly HUF 10 billion investment in its tobacco factory in Sátoraljaújhely. The development, which started in 2021, is a milestone in the company’s life in terms of production capacity, robotisation and competitiveness, and will also help Continental to create additional jobs in the region.

Work on the investment by the Continental Tobacco Group started in early 2021, the key elements of the construction was to create the three-storey plant hall with a total floor area of 5,400 m2, 1,800 m2 per floor, equipped with modern machinery, and the modernisation of the production line. In addition to increasing the tobacco cutting production capacity by around 25 percent, the investment has modernised the tobacco preparation process by orders of magnitude through the installation of new machinery, including an industrial robot for carton opening, thus significantly increasing the company’s competitiveness. The development is also an important milestone in terms of human resources, as it will help the tobacco company, as one of the largest employers in Sátoraljaújhely, to create more jobs in the region.

The new plant, which was built by Weinberg ’93 Építő Kft., will include service rooms on the ground floor, a new tobacco preparation line on the second floor, and a technological area for additional machinery and a storage room for tobacco cuttings on the third floor. In terms of infrastructure, the facility is equipped with automatic humidity and temperature control functions. The modernisation is also reflected in the mechanisation of the plant, with the aforementioned industrial robot supporting the tobacco preparation line, a cigarette production machine with laser perforation technology, cigarillo making and spiral machines, packaging machine components and other modern laboratory instruments.

Work has not been significantly slowed down by external economic uncertainty or the global disruption of supply chains.

In the context of the development, Jr. János Sánta, Head of Continental Tobacco Group, emphasized that one of the Group’s greatest strengths has always been its flexibility. This is also the spirit in which the present investment has been made, as it has given the company advantages – be it an increase in production capacity or overall competitiveness – that will further strengthen its position in both the domestic and export markets.

Regarding the implementation of the investment, Csaba Füzi, CEO of Continental Tobacco Corp. said that it was an important step in the life of the company in several respects: on the one hand, it satisfied a huge market demand that the group had been experiencing for a long time, and on the other hand, it opened an international door for domestic tobacco production, as the export of processed tobacco promises greater success than that of fermented tobacco.

The total development cost nearly HUF 10 billion, of which a significant part, about 60 percent, was self-financing and bank loans, and 40 percent was investment aid granted by the Ministry of Finance.