Philip Morris: It is our responsibility to launch an alternative manufacturing in Ukraine

Exclusive interview with Massimo Andolina, President Europe Region at Philip Morris International, to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency

-- The first question is about the Philip Morris factory in Kharkiv Region. What are the prospects for restarting production at the factory?

-- When the war started in February, the first thing we did – we immediately stopped production at the Kharkiv factory. And the reason being the safety of our people comes first. In the specific case of Kharkiv factory, we’ve never had a bunker there, which means that bringing people back to the factory would be completely unsafe. Kharkiv Region is still the location that is subject to many rocket attacks. The lives of our people come first and therefore we need to keep the factory stalled.

-- Are you considering the options to relocate the PMI production in Ukraine to safer regions?

-- After we stopped the factory for a period of time, we supplied Ukraine from 8 of our factories abroad. But we wanted to find the solution that would allow us to produce Ukrainian product in Ukraine. That is why we signed a third-party manufacturing agreement with Imperial and we're currently producing there.

Having said that, our commitment is to launch our own alternative production where we could re-establish, our domestic production in Ukraine. And there are two reasons for that. First of all, we want to produce ourselves our product in Ukraine. And second, we want to give a signal of our commitment and the fact that even during the war we are ready to invest in Ukraine. We are looking actively into those alternatives. And I hope that we are going to be able to make an announcement on the possibility to make an investment in an alternative production