Cigarette production ends as PMI turns Greek plant over to HnB consumables

Philip Morris International (PMI) has ceased production of traditional cigarettes at its Papastratos factory in the Athens suburb of Aspropyrgos in Greece, which will now manufacture only Heets, the tobacco sticks for IQOS.

The factory will be fully operational by the end of 2018, with a production capacity of 10,000 Heets a minute.

The Papastratos plant will be the tobacco giant’s second factory in Europe to concentrate purely on the manufacture of Heets, known in some markets as HeatSticks.

PMI claims that by the end of January 2018, nearly 5m adult smokers around the world had switched to using the IQOS heat-not-burn (HnB) device.