China: High-Profile Ceremony Held to Highlight Competitive Cigarette Brand of China

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 12/05/2011

Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation - the operator of the industry in southwest China's Sichuan Province and neighboring Chonqing City - held a high-profile ceremony in Sichuan's provincial capital city of Chengdu on November 18 to highlight the rolling down from the production line of the 1 millionth case of cigarettes of its big competitive Pride brand for the year 2011.

The ceremony was also intended to mark the start of the process to further enlarge the annual production capacity of Pride to two million cases. The dignitaries attending the ceremony included He Zehua, deputy director-general of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA), Li Chongxi, deputy chairman of the Standing Committee of Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, Liu Jie, deputy governor of Sichuan Province, and Wu Jianong, vice-chairman of Chongqing City Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. They also attended a symposium on promoting production of a second million cases of Pride held in the day, to jointly discuss measures for stepping up efforts to turn Pride into a greater cigarette brand of China, and prompting Sichuan Province to realize a leap forward from a large producer of leaf tobacco and cigarettes to a powerful producer of leaf tobacco and cigarettes. In an address delivered at the ceremony, General Manager Wu Yinglu of Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation recalled that when inspecting the tobacco industry of Sichuan in 2007, STMA Director-General Jiang Chengkang proposed the strategic target of enlarging the annual cigarette production capacity of Pride to one million cases. The annual sales volume of Pride is expected to top 1.15 million cases (57.5 billion cigarettes) in 2011, up 3.6 times over the level of 250,000 cases (12.5 billion cigarettes) four years ago, and also up 12.5 times over the level of merely more than 80,000 cases (4 billion cigarettes) at the time of incorporation of the company. The enlargement of the annual production capacity of Pride contributes to laying a solid foundation for turning Sichuan into a powerful producer of leaf tobacco and cigarettes from the status of a large one only. After completion of the ribbon-cutting procedure, He Zehua declared the turnout of the 1 millionth case of Pride brand cigarettes for 2011, and the start of the process to further enlarge the annual production capacity of Pride to two million cases. On further enlargement of the annual production capacity of Pride to two million cases, Wu Yinglu said that efforts will be made in the following three respects: Firstly, the advantage of the technology applied by China Tobacco Chuanyu Industry Corporation to reduce the content of harmful substances in its cigarette products will be further highlighted, in turning Pride into a technology-intensive cigarette brand with a distinctive style. Secondly, further energy will be focused on high-end cigarette products of Pride, in making breakthrough at key price levels, and in strengthening the basis of Pride. And thirdly, efforts will be made to further deepen coordination between the manufacturing and commercial sectors of the local tobacco industry, in promoting elaborate development of marketing terminals and in extending business development to all markets in China. Meanwhile, China Tobacco Industry Chuanyu Corporation unveiled a preliminary plan to develop Chinese-style cigar products, and the program of action of China Tobacco Industry Chuanyu Corporation for development of the cigar production business it has formulated, which makes up an initial guideline for straightening things out for the development of its cigar brands, and full-scale strategic development of its cigar production business. Enditem