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igarette maker PT HM Sampoerna was planning to open a new hand-rolled kretek cigarette factory in East Java, scheduled to begin operations next month, the company'€™s president director said on Thursday.

Sampoerna president director Paul Janelle said the factory, which would be located in Jember, East Java, would be an economic driver for the regency due to its domino effect.

The factory will employ 4,500 workers, mostly women.

Janelle said the opening of the new factory this year coincided with the celebration of the company'€™s 100th anniversary.

'€œWe are proud of our sustained contribution to Indonesia and we are committed to maintaining our achievements in our business,'€ Janelle said on Thursday during the company'€™s public presentation of their performance during 2012.

The new hand-rolled cigarette factory in Jember will be the seventh such factory after the company'€™s six other factories in Surabaya, Malang, Probolinggo and Lumajang, all of which are in East Java.

Janelle declined to mention the capacity or the amount of the investment in the new factory.

Last year Sampoerna, whose shares are traded under the code HMSP at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), opened two hand-rolled cigarette factories in Probolinggo and Lumajang. Together, the factories absorbed around 8,400 workers.

Besides the seven hand-rolled cigarette factories, Sampoerna also directly owns three machine-made cigarette factories, which produce both kretek and non-kretek cigarettes. The machine-made factories are located in Pasuruan in East Java and Karawang and Bekasi, West Java. Besides those directly owned, Sampoerna also manages 38 facilities '€” both for hand-rolled and machine-made cigarettes '€” owned by third parties, spread across Java.

Cigarette smokers across the country consumed around 70 percent of all machine-made cigarettes, Sampoerna said. Last year, the country saw sales of more than 302 billion cigarettes. Of that total, the company'€™s brands '€“ A Mild, U Mild, Marlboro, Sampoerna Kretek and Dji Sam Soe '€” together held nearly 35.6 percent of the market share, up from 31.1 percent in 2011. The leader of the pack, Sampoerna A Mild, held 13.8 percent share, while its longest-running brand, the hand-rolled Dji Sam Soe, held 7.8 percent of market share last year, unchanged from the share in 2011.

On Thursday at the public presentation, the firm'€™s finance and information services director, Mark Niehaus, announced that the shareholders meeting had approved of a dividend payment amounting to Rp 9.9 trillion (US$1.02 billion) or Rp 2,269 per share. HMSP'€™s shares closed at Rp 83,500 per share on Friday, 0.77 percent down from Rp 84,150 on Thursday.