British American Tobacco Romania team to coordinate the group’s regional operations

Romania has become a strategic leader within British American Tobacco (BAT) for eight countries in the region plus Kosovo. Following the move, the Romanian BAT team will oversee operations in Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia-Hertegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia and Croatia. 

Richard Widmann, the new regional director of British American Tobacco, will coordinate from Bucharest all operations of the newly created area. With 15 years o f experience with the company, Widmann has previously occupied several the positions, such as that of commercial director with BAT’s Malaysia office and marketing director with the South Africa office. In the past four years, he occupied the position of director general for the Central and Eastern European region.

“Romania is an important country for British American Tobacco and that is why, in the past 20 years, we invested constantly here, in the Ploiesti factory, in our employees, for the overall business development. The fact that Romania was chosen as a regional leader shows both its growth potential and out firm commitment towards the future,” Richard Widmann.

Starting 1 January 2018, BAT Romania director general Gemma Webb will take on the position of director general for BAT UK&Ireland as well as new products operationRichard Widmanns for Western Europe. Gemma joined BAT in 2001 and, before coming to Romania, held several global positions.

“In the past 6 years since I’ve coordinated the BAT Romania activities I witnessed positive changes for the company and for Romania. In my term, the Romanian team almost doubled and reached almost 2,500 people which, with no exception, had amazing results. Due to all these individual and team achievements, the company is market leader in Romania, with a market share of over 55 percent,” Webb said.

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According to company representatives, the new organisation will improve the  flow of resources and will streamline the decision making process for the product categories involved.