Improving the efficiency of production lines – Investments of over 8.5 million euros

The Greek tobacco industry Karelia has high expectations for 2026.

As the CEO of the company, Andreas G. Karelias, emphasized in his New Year’s message to the company’s employees, “in the new year we will focus our efforts on improving the efficiency of our production lines.”

He added that “this means clearer procedures, which are followed with discipline and without deviations, better coordination, fewer repeated errors, stronger communication between teams and a common mindset of continuous improvement.”

According to the management, the investment effort to strengthen its production capacity will continue in 2026, examining investments that may exceed 8.5 million euros.

In 2025, the company’s total sales volume exceeded 18 billion cigarettes for the first time, an increase of approximately 9% compared to 2024.

This specific result was achieved thanks to the increased appeal of the tobacco industry’s brands, the investments it has made and continues to make, the efforts of the International Sales and the Production and Technical Support Departments.

In rolling tobacco, the company increased its sales internationally by 2.5%, exceeding 1.2 million kilos.

In the Greek market and despite intense competition, the year ended with a 4% increase in cigarette volume and a marginal decrease of 0.7% in tobacco.

The company’s organic profitability is also significantly improved, as a result of an increase in turnover of approximately 11% and an improvement in the gross profit margin due to cautious increases in its factory prices, as well as the de-escalation of tobacco purchase prices internationally, although in recent months its final profitability has been affected by the exchange rate weakness of the dollar against the euro.

In 2025, the company strengthened its already significant cash reserves by 6%, having at the same time managed to finance increased investments and high tobacco stockpiling.