Phillip Morris International, one of the biggest tobacco manufacturers in the world, has named Croatian Branislav Bibic to manage its operations in Romania.

Bibic started as his mandate as Managing Director of Philip Morris International (PMI) in Romania on November 1, 2016. He replaced Dane Steen Hjortholm who has been appointed Vice-President Human Resources in Russia.

Branislav Bibic is coming to Romania from Lausanne, Switzerland, where he worked at PMI Duty Free as global Director Corporate Affairs. He has 20 years of experience, 9 of which within Philip Morris. He started his career in Philip Morris Zagreb in 2007 and was a member of Management Team for Central Europe – South region (General Manager in Croatia). He progressed through various key positions in markets from Eastern and Central Europe region such as Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration at the University of Oxford.

“I am honored by this appointment and I am looking forward to working along Philip Morris teams in Romania. My mission here is to consolidate the local business and continue the successful launch of the company Risk Reduced Products platforms with a strong consolidation of Philip Morris position in this innovative field. As business development in Romania and innovation are top priorities for our company, we will continue to strongly and consistently invest in people, brands and our factory in Otopeni,” Branislav Bibic, Managing Director Philip Morris Romania said.

Phillip Morris has a factory in Otopeni, which produces cigarettes for the local market and for export. Phillip Morris Romania, the local company that operates the factory, had a turnover of almost EUR 43 million and a net profit of EUR 6 million in 2015, according to official data from the Finance Ministry. Phillip Morris Trading, which is the group’s distribution business, had sales of EUR 505 million and a net profit of EUR 5.7 million last year. The two companies together had close to 900 employees.

Branislav Bibic takes over the local operation in a year when new restrictions related to smoking in public places and the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products have been enforced. The local tobacco manufacturers and distributors, which also include British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) are also faced with a high level of the black cigarette market.

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editor@romania-insider.com