Philip Morris Opens Russian Factory
02/15/00
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- The Philip Morris tobacco company on Tuesday opened a $330 million cigarette factory outside St. Petersburg.
The plant, Philip Morris Izhora, is to produce 25 billion cigarettes a year. It is the largest of the U.S. company's three Russian factories.
The opening of the plant brings production of all Philip Morris brands, apart from Parliament and Virginia Slims, to Russia, said Pyotr Lidov, head of the company's external relations department.
The new plant becomes the fifth tobacco plant in the Leningrad Region, the area around St. Petersburg.