British American Tobacco Korea’s production plant in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, reached $200 million in exports in 2017, according to the company Wednesday.

The $200 million mark was reached just one year after reaching $100 million in 2016 thanks to the construction of two new plants at the factory this June. In total, the Sacheon Factory exported $208 million’s worth of products to 15 countries between July 2016 and June 2017.

The factory currently has a capacity of 40 billion tobacco sticks annually, producing 450 brands of both cigarettes and the heat-not-burn Neostiks for use with BAT’s HNB device Glo. The Sacheon factory produces all of the Neostiks sold in Korea and Japan.

For reaching the $200 million mark, BAT received the Export Tower Award at the 54th Annual Trade Day ceremony hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and supervised by the Korea International Trade Association Tuesday.

“BAT Korea Sacheon Factory’s exports doubling within just a year goes on to show that the high quality of ‘Made in Korea’ products is being recognized throughout the globe,” said Matthieu Juery, CEO of BAT Korea.

The Sacheon Factory has maintained top rankings among BAT Group’s 44 factories worldwide in the production quality index as well as the product quality index since 2003. 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)