China: Key Cigarette Factory Starts Relocation to New Site

Source from:  HongyunHonghe Group 01/24/2011

Kunming Cigarette Factory of HongyunHonghe Tobacco Group in southwest China's tobacco-producing Yunnan Province - a key Chinese tobacco manufacturing enterprise - held a grand ceremony on January 18 to officially start the process of relocation to a new site in a costly project of relocation and technological transformation intended to significantly promote its production capacity. Named "Continuation with the Past and Openingt up of the Future to Create Greater Successes", the ceremony meant a major historical moment for the 88-year-old Kunming Cigarette Factory, which has undergone great changes over the past century. The grand ceremony also signified a landmark and a new start point for realizing the great ambition of building up a big tobacco manufacturing enterprise from nothing by the several generations of staff members and workers of Kunming Cigarette Factory, for demonstrating the great image of HongyunHonghe, for promoting the powerful competitiveness of the Yunyan brand family, and for striving to turn Kunming Cigarette Factory into a firs-rate, internationally advanced modern tobacco manufacturing enterprise. The new site of Kunming Cigarette Factory covers a total area of more than 110 mu (more over 7.33 hectares). So far, investment in the project of relocation and technological transformation of Kunming Cigarette Factory has totaled over 6 billion yuan (896 million U.S. dollars). The process of relocation is expected to be completed in March and normal production of the new Kunming Cigarette Factory is expected to be fully resumed in May. The project of relocation and technological transformation is intended to turn Kunming Cigarette Factory into a firs-rate, internationally advanced modern tobacco manufacturing enterprise representing the strength and image of the tobacco industry of China, capable of producing 75 billion cigarettes (1.5 million cases) annually. In 2010, Kunming Cigarette Factory produced 69.445 billion cigarettes (1.3889 million cases), generating 20.1 billion yuan (3 billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits, accounting for 52.1 percent of the taxes and profits generated by the whole of HongyunHonghe in the year. Annually, Kunming Cigarette Factory produces 85 percent of the Grades One and Two cigarettes of HongyunHonghe - the largest Chinese tobacco manufacturer. Enditem