Two more large companies with Connecticut ties — Stamford-bound tobacco giant Philip Morris International and New Britain-based toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker — have announced they are curtailing their operations in Russia.
Those Fortune 500 firms have joined a massive corporate pullback from Russia in the past two weeks in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. But some Connecticut-based companies such as Otis Worldwide and Subway still appear to be doing business in Russia.
Stanley Black & Decker announced Tuesday it was shutting down its Russian business, as it “stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.” PMI said Wednesday that it activated plans to scale down its manufacturing in Russia “amid ongoing supply chain disruptions and the evolving regulatory environment.” PMI also said it was suspending planned investments in the country, including all new product launches and commercial, innovation and manufacturing investments.
“We have watched with shock the war in Ukraine and condemn the violence in the strongest possible terms. We stand in solidarity with the innocent men, women and children who are suffering,” PMI Chief Executive Officer Jacek Olczak said in a statement. “We join the many voices calling for an immediate end to the war and the restoration of peace.”
In 2021, Russia accounted for nearly 10 percent of PMI’s shipments of cigarette and heated tobacco sticks and around 6 percent of its net revenues.
PMI said it would continue to pay the salaries of its more than 3,200 employees in Russia. The No. 101 company in the 2021 Fortune 500 opened its first “representative office” in the country in 1992.
PMI, the No. 101 company on last year’s Fortune list that plans to open this summer its new headquarters in downtown Stamford, has also temporarily suspended its operations in Ukraine.
Stanley Black & Decker, No. 209 on last year’s Fortune list, recorded about $150 million in revenues in Russia last year — equal to about 1 percent of its total returns. In response to an inquiry from Hearst Connecticut Media, a company spokesperson said the company would continue to pay its approximately 100 Russia-based employees.
“We have a question that we have to figure out is, is this still a business we want to have long term in Russia or is it something that we just have to exit over the coming weeks or months,” Donald Allan Jr., Stanley Black & Decker’s president and chief financial officer, said during an investor conference Monday. “So that’s something we’re watching very closely to see how it plays out. The good news is we have no manufacturing in either one of those countries (Russia or Ukraine). So they’re really just commercial operations at this point in time.”
At the same time, the companies announced support for humanitarian relief in Ukraine that includes a $10 million pledge from PMI and Stanley Black & Decker donating a total of $1 million to several nonprofits.
Approximately 300 major companies have reduced their presence in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, according to an online tracker maintained by Yale School of Management. Other companies that are headquartered or have major operations in Connecticut that have scaled down their presence in the country include Booking Holdings, WWE, Diageo and Henkel.
When the tracker was launched on Monday, PMI was among about 30 companies that Yale said at that point remained in Russia “with significant exposure.”
Farmington-based elevator, escalator and moving-walkway maker Otis Worldwide was among the other Connecticut companies that apparently remained in Russia as of Wednesday. The company has “joint ventures and partnerships” in the country, according to the Yale tracker.
Officials at Otis, the No. 236 company on the Fortune list, said in a statement Wednesday that “we are monitoring developments carefully and will continue to adjust our operations and procedures in compliance with applicable laws and in order to continue to best serve all of our stakeholders in this challenging context.”
Subway, the Milford-headquartered fast-food giant, also still appears to be doing business in Russia. In a statement Wednesday, the company said it would redirect profits from Russian operations to support humanitarian relief for Ukrainians, but it did not indicate that any of its 446 restaurants in Russia would close.
pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter; @paulschott
