JTI Batangas factory awarded as PEZA Outstanding Employer for year 2020
Also cited for Outstanding Community ProjectC
THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has again conferred JTI the PEZA Outstanding Employer Award for 2020 through its manufacturing arm, JTI Asia Manufacturing Corp (JTI-AMC), located inside the Lima Ecozone in Malvar, Batangas province.
The JTI-AMC factory has been given this award for the second consecutive year.
PEZA also cited JTI-AMC for its Outstanding Community Project (CSR), the first time it has bestowed this award to JTI under the CSR category.
“We wholeheartedly extend our sincerest gratitude to your company for its notable efforts towardsgenerating significant employment and providing excellent employee welfare programs together withsocial welfare programs that greatly benefit the Filipino community,” PEZA Director General Charito B. Plaza said.
Mr. John Freda, JTI Philippines General Manager, and Mr. Eugen Kuntsmann, Finance Director, JTI-AMC, received the twin PEZA awards during PEZA’s Investors’ Recognition Day and Excellence Awards 2021, held November 25, 2021 at the agency’s main office in Pasay City.
Elena Trusova, President of JTI-AMC, said the two awards won by JTI-AMC confirms the Company’s deep commitment to its employees’ welfare and its continuing effort to give back to the communities where JTI does business.
“This PEZA award further validates our global Top Employer award which we have received for the past seven years. It was made sweeter by PEZA’s recognition of our Community Investment (CI) projects that are focused in sectors and communities where we believe we can make a real difference,” Trusova said.
Trusova expressed her gratitude to the PEZA management for recognizing JTI efforts to always put the well-being of its employees as top priority while reaching out to marginalized communities that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aside from continuous employment generation despite these challenging times, the JTI factory also stood out for its skills development and training of its people. Furthermore, the facility scored high for implementing “best practices” in the workplace and for putting in place globally recognized safety measures for employees.
The community project cited by PEZA was the donation of pandemic response packs by JTI-AMC, including PPEs, sanitizers, facemasks, face shields, and food packs, and also means of transport provided for stranded PEZA employees that were donated by JTI-AMC to communities heavily impacted by COVID-19 last year.
Also, JTIP General Manager Freda lauded PEZA for its role in promoting and championing the export sector and manufacturing industry, which are key drivers in a country’s economic development.
“A robust export sector with a strong manufacturing base are key ingredients in achieving economic development and we, at JTI, are extremely proud to be part of this essential role being fulfilled by PEZA,” Freda said.
The JTI-AMC factory in Batangas commenced operations in 2017 and currently serves a total of 15 global markets where JTI has a presence.
The Batangas factory currently employs 900 people and partially runs on solar power owing to the 19,500 photo-voltaic panels installed on its roof.
