Factory Focus Q1 10

India

The G.D. spare parts center in conjunction with Hitkari Trading Corporation (HTC) has made significant progress and has now expanded dramatically.

The center was set-up at the request of ITC in 2001 at an initial investment of US$84,000. Further considerable investment has been made ever since to ensure that the center conforms to the strict regulations and requirements of G.D. The storage area temperature is maintained between 18º and 26º Celsius, with a maximum humidity level of 60%, throughout the year. The air conditioning prevents corrosion or other damage to the high value spare parts. Dehumidifiers have also been installed. This attention to detail is highly appreciated by the cigarette industry.

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Vietnam

Vietnam National Tobacco Corporation (Vinataba) has announced the appointment of Tran Son Chau as director general and c.e.o. of the company effective January 1, 2010.

Chau is a professional finance manager who has been with Vinataba since 1987, serving as finance director of Saigon Factory, finance director of Vinataba and factory director of Saigon Tobacco Company (2003)

Chau is credited for making Saigon Tobacco Company and its main cigarette brand, Vinataba, hugely successful during his six years as company director.

Malaysia

Parkside Flexibles Group is opening its new world-class facility in early 2010 located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Parkside believes the time is right to bring high quality print and lamination to Asia and the new production unit will be equipped with state of the art print, lamination and finishing equipment. The company has chosen to install exclusively flexographic printing machinery through 2010 for its unparalleled flexibility, speed-to-market and cost efficiency.

Parkside’s investment in innovation has enabled them to develop the Flexo process, a method that closes the quality gap on traditional gravure printing. Parkside call it Extreme Flexo and it allows the company to deliver more dots per inch, to print vignettes and to produce sharper illustrations than ever before.

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US

Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. reported third quarter 2009 earnings results for the period ended September 30, 2009 and announced plans to construct an Asian greenfield production site to produce reconstituted tobacco leaf (RTL).

"Our third quarter results continue to build on the broad-based improvement in our business achieved in the first half of 2009," commented Frederic Villoutreix, chairman of the board and c.e.o. "Our excellent results for the quarter demonstrate the continuing success of our restructuring initiatives to transform our core manufacturing operations toward higher-value products. During the quarter, we progressed in closing our Malaucene, France production site and announced further restructuring activity in France and the US resulting in additional restructuring and impairment expenses.

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