BUSINESS WRITER
One of Zimbabwe’s cigarette manufacturers, Pacific Cigarette Company (PCC) is in talks with a Chinese firm for a partnership that will see the two companies produce a cigarette brand for the African market.
Business Times heard that PCC and China Tobacco Shaanxi Industrial Corporation (CTSIC) will tomorrow finalise a joint venture project, a culmination of over a year in discussions to come up with the right product that will have an imprint on the African market.
If the deal comes to fruition, it will be the first joint venture project between a State-owned Chinese firm and an African cigarette manufacturer.
Although the finer details of the joint venture could not be obtained as officials feared it could render useless tomorrow’s event, insiders said the deal would culminate in a product for the African market.
Formerly Savanna Tobacco Company, PCC was formed in 2002 and is the manufacturer of the Pacific, Branson, Pegasus and Remington Gold brand of cigarettes.
It operates directly and indirectly in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has also expanded into Central America from Jamaica where PCC has a country manager.
The company has been intensifying its expansion programme and in 2015 appointed Nick Hales as Global CEO to drive the thrust.
TSIC is based in Xian, Shaanxi Province in China. It is a regional subsidiary of the Chinese National Tobacco Company which owns and regulates all tobacco-related industries in the Asian giant.
It produces and distributes cigarettes and also provides tobacco technology development, materials procurement, and other services.
