Egypt’s Eastern Company will pump EGP 1bn – EGP 1.25bn in investments during fiscal year (FY) 2020/21, according to the company’s Managing Director and CEO Hany Aman.
The investments will include the addition of new machinery for cigarettes and flavoured tobacco products, renewing spare parts for a number of other machines, as well as upgrading others.
Aman said that sales for the top five consumer goods companies working in the Egyptian market constitute 60% of the volume of the Eastern Company’s business. This volume makes it the consumer market leader, in light of the distribution of 11 million packs of cigarettes per day adding up to 3.5 billion packs annually.
He revealed that the company is in the process of producing new types of flavoured tobacco, and is looking to convert the manual production process into an automated mechanism. The move will take place during the coming period to change the company’s production strategy.
Aman said that the transformation of flavoured tobacco manufacturing to machine-based production aims to control many standards. He also said that manual manufacturing is linked to the individual’s production capacity, unlike the automatic process.
He added that the company is negotiating with international companies to partner on the production of heated tobacco products (HTPs).
Eastern Company will manufacture cigarettes, but will resort to importing devices from China, and does not plan to produce them locally like other international companies. The company plans to seize 5% of Egypt’s HTPs market in the first two years.
Aman said that the company has undertaken a contract with a real estate appraisal office to evaluate all unused assets, which have been estimated in the billions. These will be exploited by the company, whether through sales or partnerships.
He added that the company has obtained approvals to change the activity of the untapped assets, and is looking to reach the appropriate formula with the appropriate investors to exploit its real estate stock.
He noted that these assets include buildings of a high financial value which can be used for various commercial purposes. This requires that the company enter into partnerships with investors who understand the nature of those assets, and which ensures their optimal use.
