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Business Reporter

Zimbabwe’s largest cigarette manufacturer Savanna Tobacco has re-branded and re-launched its popular Pacific Storm brand as the indigenous company seeks to consolidate its share of the market. Pacific Storm brand executive Rubatsiro Kadzunge said the move is part of Savanna Tobacco’s drive to reposition itself against its foreign-owned competitors particularly in the toasted cigarette sector. Mr Kadzunge said in line with the Government’s indigenisation and economic empowerment drive, the company has in the past few years also launched a number of initiatives aimed at empowering small scale indigenous businesspeople.

“We have been at the forefront of a number of initiatives including the formalization of over 1 200 informal traders and the launch of vendor kiosks for micro-entrepreneurs.

“The re-launch sees a new positioning line allied with a new packaging design for all its variants including the 20, 10 and two packs,” said Mr Kadzunge.

Savanna Tobacco became the first wholly Zimbabwean owned company to break the local cigarette manufacturing monopoly of the foreign-owned British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2002 and makes the Pacific, Pegasus and Branson brands.