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Universal believes that the use and refinement of best practice procedures and the development of improved technologies within our processing facilities are vital to our ability to protect our workforce, improve our processing results, and ultimately provide a better quality product to our customers.
Utilization of best practices begins with the identification, selection, and measurement of procedures to satisfy our goals of quality, efficiency, and safety. The development and implementation of quality management systems within our operations has provided a strong mechanism to implement and improve best practices. Our systems are driven by feedback from our management teams, employees, suppliers, and customers. This valuable feedback is used to drive continuous improvement of our processes and procedures.
A Corporate Processing Team consisting of representatives from our worldwide operations evaluates and implements key strategies to improve our processing operations around the world. The Company also conducts worldwide Operations Conferences aimed at facilitating critical dialogue between our personnel to address key processing issues and share knowledge and best practices between our countries of operation.
Universal continues to develop, invest in, and implement new technologies. In the early 1960s we built the first tobacco super-plant in Henderson, North Carolina, developing economies of scale that had never been achieved in the industry. We were also the first merchant company in the industry to implement laboratory standards and establish a quality control laboratory for tobacco.
Over the years, Universal has continued as a technological innovator, making significant investments in both new construction and upgrades to our existing facilities. We have installed new processing equipment in our facilities in Africa, Brazil, Canada, Italy, and the United States. SOCOTAB LLC, Universal’s partner in the oriental tobacco segment, has constructed facilities in Bulgaria and Greece to process oriental leaf tobacco. Also in 2003, Universal began operations at a new, 1.2-million-square-foot facility in Nash County, North Carolina, which we believe is the most technologically advanced leaf processing facility in the world.
Our facilities are equipped with industry-standard quality control equipment, and we utilize sound procedures to test and to report results which are carefully analyzed and used to drive process changes that enhance product quality.
Universal continues to improve our technologies through research and development initiatives. We have established strong alliances with equipment manufacturers to customize equipment for our processing needs, and we have patented equipment and processes that are widely used throughout the tobacco industry. We also operate an engineering research and development center in Wilson, North Carolina, which is used to expand our processing innovation efforts. These efforts have ranged from the development of improved leaf separation technologies to the development of improved Non-Tobacco-Related Materials (NTRM) removal devices.
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