Philip Morris To Invest Up To EUR 500 Mln In Italy For Reduced-Risk Products

(RTTNews) - Tobacco company Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) announced Friday that it is investing up to 500 million euros in Italy to produce its potentially reduced-risk tobacco products.

The investment is into its first manufacturing facility in the European Union and an associated pilot plant near Bologna, Italy.

Once fully operational, the factory and pilot plant combined annual production capacity would reach up to 30 billion units by 2016, the company said.

Philip Morris expects to begin the construction on the new facility immediately and last approximately two years. Once fully operational it will employ up to 600 people.

The company said the pilot plant is already near completion and will serve as the production facility for pilot and initial market launches. The majority of the construction and manufacturing equipment will be procured from Italian companies.

Further, the company said it established a strategic framework in December with Altria Group, Inc. (MO) under which Altria will make available its e-cigarette products exclusively to the firm for commercialization outside the United States. Philip Morris plans to enter the e-cigarette market in the second half of 2014.