The multinational conglomerate British American Tobacco (BAT) has invested over 1.2 billion pounds (€1.4 billion) in research and development of new products over the last three years globally, and has plans to continue investing into its factory in the Croatian town of Kanfanar, the company said in a press release on Friday carried by the state news platform Hina.

The global aim of this company is to have 50 million users of its new tobacco-based products until 2030, with 5 billion pounds (€5.8 billion) in annual revenues by 2025.

BAT employs over 1,500 researchers and scientists worldwide and has nine development centers engaged in the research of new categories of products. Concerning its Kanfanar plant, BAT said the factory is important since it is “one of the few factories in the world with the production lines for heated tobacco products.”

Recently, BAT has invested some 200 million kuna (€27 million) in those new lines and it plans to invest an additional 400 million kuna (€53 million). Thus, the total investment by BAT in Croatia will have reached 5.3 billion kuna (€707 million).

BAT supports 6,071 jobs through its direct and indirect operations in Croatia, in industry, agriculture, logistics and transport, as well as the financial, utility and other service sectors, according to a study prepared by the Oxford Economics consultants for BAT.

BAT had 1,491 employees at the end of 2021 in Croatia – 700 jobs are supported solely by selling BAT’s products through independent retailers, 2,680 jobs are supported in domestic supply chains in Croatia, including 370 tobacco producers in the regions of Slavonia and Podravina, while another 1,200 jobs are supported as a result of spending by BAT employees, a retail segment supported by BAT and relevant supply chains, according to that study.

€1 = 7.54 kuna