Imperial Brands offloads Russian business following boycott
Maker of JPS and Winston cigarettes Imperial Brands has said it will offload its Russian operations to a local operator following last week’s announcement that it would be suspending all operations in the country following the Ukraine invasion.
The Rizla-owner said that it had begun negotiations to transfer its assets and operations in Russia, and said: “We believe that, in the current circumstances, an orderly transfer of our business as a going concern would be in the best interests of our Russian colleagues”.
“Their safety and wellbeing is our key priority in this process. We will also continue to pay their salaries until any transfer is concluded,” Imperial Brands said.
“Any transaction relating to our Russian business is subject to agreement being reached,” the cigarette giant added.
Imperial Brands has around 1,000 people working for it in Russia, and has a factory in Volgograd, a city in the south west of the country.
It is thought that the decision to transfer, rather than sell, the division suggests that the company are not looking to benefit from the deal.
The British firm, which has already suspended its operations in Ukraine, said it will be supporting its Russian employees, who continue to be paid while operations are paused.
Russia and Ukraine together represented about two per cent of the group’s net revenue and 0.5 per cent of adjusted operating profit in full year 2021.
Rival Philip Morris have also joined the list of multinationals stepping back from the Kremlin state, however, unlike Imperial, it said it would scale down manufacturing rather than completely halt it.