SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Philip Morris International will increase
the capacity of its Subic Bay tobacco storage facility by 4 times,
making it the largest such warehouse in Southeast Asia.
 
Initially envisioned to store 6,100 metric tons of tobacco products,
the facility will soon be able to keep and preserve 24,000MTs of
imported tobacco leaves, a company official said.
 

The new warehouse will have humidity control, fire suppression
equipment, and air conditioning to store imported tobacco which
will then be transported to cigarette manufacturing plants in Malaysia,
Indonesia and Philippines.
 
The expansion forms part of the company’s plan to build a P1 billion
tobacco leaf regional warehouse here, a PMPMI official said.
 
As part of its expansion, PMPMI entered into a 50-year lease agreement
with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), increasing the size of its
warehouse from 9,6000 sq meters to 49,279sq meters.
 
This comprises the second phase of the company’s expansion plans
in SUbic Bay, PMPMI managing director Christopher Nelson said.
 
The warehouse expansion is “a reflection of our faith to the Philippine government,
particularly the SBMA” Nelson said.
 
He also expressed confidence that PMPMI will remain profitable against
its rivals despite increasing competition in the tobacco industry. Currently
PMPMI employs 812 workers. It has a head office in Makati, a factory in
Tanauan, Batangas and various regional offices across the country.