Philip Morris Announces $600M Manufacturing Plant In Aurora
Philip Morris International Inc., the Connecticut-based multinational tobacco giant, announced plans to invest $600M over the next two years in a manufacturing facility in Aurora.
The facility will reportedly create 500 direct jobs and have an ongoing annual impact of $500M for the state of Colorado as it produces ZYN nicotine pouches.
PMI’s U.S. affiliate plans to break ground on the new facility later this year. Preliminary operations, according to a company press release, will start by the end of 2025 with regular production beginning in 2026.
PMI said jobs at the facility have an anticipated annual salary of around $90K.
The company made its announcement on Tuesday at the Colorado Freedom Memorial near the site of the new facility. Stacey Kennedy, PMI Americas president and U.S. CEO, said PMI chose Aurora for a variety of reasons.
“This community’s diverse, skilled workforce makes it a perfect place for us to expand our manufacturing footprint, and I find it rather poetic that we’re building this facility to make Zyn nicotine pouches right here in Colorado where it all began,” Kennedy said, according to the Denver Business Journal.
Kennedy noted that Swedish Match began a pilot project in Colorado in July 2014 before its nationwide launch.
According to FastCompany.com, Zyn use by consumers has soared over the past year, prompted in part by so-called “Zynfluencers” on TikTok. The demand for Zyn is reportedly so sharp that PMI’s sole factory creating the product, in Owensboro, Kentucky, cannot keep up, resulting in what some people online are calling a “Zyndemic.”
Yurly Gorlov, vice president of the Aurora Economic Development Council, told The Denver Post that Aurora provided $7.1M in tax rebates to PMI for the new facility. He added that the Colorado Economic Development Council also approved $4.5M in job growth incentive tax credits, while Adams County provided another $4.3M.
Gov. Jared Polis, who attended Tuesday’s press conference, said PMI and other companies consider factors like logistical issues, workforce and affordable housing when choosing a site. State legislature has worked hard to attract both large manufacturing and small businesses to Colorado, he added.
In the PMI press release, Kennedy underscored the state’s business-friendly atmosphere.
“We believe Colorado is likeminded in its commitment to innovation, economic opportunity and public health,” she said, “and we’re eager to work with the state and its talented workforce as we expand our U.S. manufacturing presence.”
