Philip Morris to launch new $30m production facility in Ukraine

Philip Morris International (PMI) will launch a new $30 million (£23.5m) production facility in the Lviv region in western Ukraine in the first quarter of next year, the company said on Tuesday.

It said the facility would create 250 jobs.

"This investment reflects our commitment as Ukraine's long-term economic partner," Maksym Barabash, chief executive of Philip Morris Ukraine, said in a statement. "We are not waiting for the end of the war - we are investing now."

Ukraine is in dire need of foreign capital to rebuild and revamp its economy, hit hard by Russia’s invasion.

Gross domestic product fell by 29.2 per cent in 2022, the largest annual fall since the country's independence more than 30 years ago. Officials and analysts forecast modest economic growth this year as businesses adjusted to new, wartime realities.

Some large multinationals that were active in Ukraine for many years have recently announced investment plans to launch production in the country's central and western regions, far from front lines.

Unilever said in March it would invest €20 million (£17m) in a new production facility in the Kyiv region, with the factory expected to open in 2024. Nestlé started construction in May of a 40-million Swiss franc (£35m) production facility in the west of Ukraine.

Philip Morris has invested over $700 million in the Ukrainian economy since the start of its operations in the country in 1994.