Sarajevo Tobacco Factory

Sarajevo Tobacco Factory

Type	Public
Industry	Tobacco
Founded	1880
Headquarters	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Products	Cigarettes
Number of employees	2,000 (2007)
Website	www.fds.ba

Sarajevo Tobacco Factory (Bosnian: Fabrika duhana Sarajevo or FDS) is a cigarette producer in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its headquarters is in Sarajevo with branches in Bihać, Tuzla, Čitluk and Banja Luka as well as in Skopje in the Republic of Macedonia and Belgrade in Serbia. The factory produces the AurA Extra, AurA lights, AurA super lights, Drina denifine, Drina jedina bijela, Drina jedina zlatna, Drina lights, Drina super lights, Tigra medium, Code and 8 (Eight) brands until No Tobacco on January 2008.

The Sarajevo Tobacco Factory was founded in 1880, only two years after the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878. FDS was one of the first four industries in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For eighty years, FDS was located in Marijin Dvor, nowadays a center of the city. At its founding, FDS consisted of only two buildings, production and administration. As production grew, the FDS complex became larger. It was finally formed in 1891, when the last of ten buildings was constructed. This situation remained until the middle of the last century.

As the complex of FDS became larger, the number of employees also increased. In that early stage, it was mostly unskilled female labor. The first products of FDS were the cut tobacco packets produced manually in the device called “avan”. Tobacco used for these packets was of a different grade, and the packets were also different. During the Austro-Hungarian period, this product was exported.

The production of cigarettes started in 1882. They were produced manually until 1905 when the first automatic cigarette maker was obtained. By the beginning of World War I, FDS marketed 23 brands. They were packed in boxes made of wood, tin and cardboard. The smallest packet contained five and the largest one hundred cigarettes.