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50 tobaccoasia / Issue 5, 2016 November / December The premises of KT International in Plovdiv An overhead optical moisture meter to our products due to our increasing reputation as an international producer of quality brands." KT's internationally most popular brands currently are Corset and The King, which are primarily sold in Europe. In the UAE and other strategic Middle Eastern markets, the designer brand Falcon was launched a while ago. And although KT considers all of its current markets as key markets (Buchanan: "We work with the same passion and focus and effort on all of them."), France appears to hold a place of honor, though, as the country was one of the first international markets the company penetrated and where particularly Corset maintains strong sales against a wide array of competing brands. Yet this seemingly comfortable international position does not entice KT to rest on its well-deserved laurels. "Every one of our 31 markets needs to be developed further," said Shterev. "Although we are small, we are expanding rapidly and we believe that we have room to grow in all our markets as more consumers move to our trusted brands that offer quality, style and value." How serious the company is in this resolve is vividly illustrated by the diverse choice of different cigarette formats being offered. While king size is globally still the most popular format, long sizes and slim sizes are experiencing strong growth in many regions, too – and KT certainly appears determined to supply all of them. "In fact, we are not planning to discontinue any [of the currently marketed] formats. On the contrary: One of our upcoming projects will see the introduction of the so-called queen size format," disclosed Shterev. He added that his company is also developing new EU TPD2-compliant slim and superslim pack formats. "But these are still strictly confidential and I cannot divulge any further information at this moment." Capital Tobacco: a global approach Established in the 1990s, Capital Tobacco became independent and in charge of its own development from attracting foreign investments. Although head- quartered in Bulgaria and with factories in Bulgaria and Moldova, Capital To- bacco has also set up a branch in South Africa, where it buys tobacco directly from farmers in countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. As such, the company sees itself as not only a Bulgarian company, but an international one as well, and a company that is well on its development path, enjoying a 14% growth for the past two years. Capital Tobacco is considered to be one of the top buyers of Bulgaria's to- bacco crop, buying between 10-20% of it. In addition to that and the African tobacco, Capital Tobacco also buys a large quantity of tobacco from Asian countries like China, India, and Indonesia. A key feature of Capital Tobacco's products is their competitive pricing which is attractive to their clients in existing markets and new ones. "Be- fore we were focused only on the Russian market and markets that were [former CIS countries] like Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova," said Konstantina Markova, c.o.o. of Capital Tobacco. "Now we are more worldwide. That's why we established a branch in South Africa, that's why we started working with more companies outside of the EU." The company also has clients in Asia and is currently looking at opportunities in the US and Canada. "If I have to be honest in Bulgaria we are not selling a lot," Markova further explained. "We are not working with Bulgartabac, we are not working with Kings Tobacco. First of all, [it's] because ba- sically we have to buy from the same farmers from the same place and sell it to them without a profit. Second of all, even if we were able to source them tobacco from other countries, the payment terms for both companies are very, let's say, not conve- nient for us, so for us there is no need to deal with the companies that the terms are not favorable. "We have worked with Bulgartabac in the past, maybe 10 years back. We have never worked with Kings Tobacco because they're quite new. We're open to partnership, but [when we say] partnership it's something that basically is suitable for you and suitable for the other side. We do have a very good market share in Eastern Europe, so we're happy with that and we are more globally orientated, not so much Bulgarian orientated [in terms of sales]." Aside from tobacco and tobacco blends, includ- ing RYO and cut rag, Capital Tobacco is currently developing its own shisha product that is expected to be introduced to the market in Q1 2017. "We are going to [launch the shisha product] in Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania first. These are the target markets right now because we are more local and we will be able to control the market better. At the second stage we will do Africa be- cause our other head office is there and we will start [targeting] South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and all these countries where there is a bigger Islamic com- munity and people who are going to be attracted to [this kind of product]. [From there] we're going to see where else is asking us to go." images courtesy of KT International SA images courtesy of KT International SA