Try and compare the Bratislavian settlement round the castle on an old postcard with its todayis form and a damage to the cityis historic beauty is apparent at a glance. The same process of a radical change occurred also in the Spišská Belá-based tobacco factory - though here it entailed an evident shift toward progress.

It is not difficult to answer the questions relating to the visual, technological and production transformation of the tobacco factory dating from 1898. The 101-year factory has lived through the last six years as a new link in the chain of the worldis sixth largest cigarette concern Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken Hamburg. Its capital entry into the Czechoslovak Tobacco Industry plant in 1992 had been accompanied until last year with an extensive cycle of changes which gave the factory a standard comparable with European tobacco units. In fact, company Reemtsma at Spišská Belá has lived up to the reputation of the worldis fastest growing cigarette concern.

"Over the six years the parent company has invested 1.2 billion Sk in our factory, which meant a reverse in the overall culture of its existence," factory director Anna Sabolová states.

A model situation in both functionality and appearance was provided to general reconstruction of the factory in the birthplace of the mastermind of modern optics, Jozef Maximilián Petzval, by the plant in Langenhage, Germany, and if we choose the introductory postcard method to confront the past with the present, the old factory is represented just by tradition. The old halls have been given new layouts through the reconstruction, a high quality of working environment has entered them with air-conditiong typical with laboratory cleanliness and dustfreeness, and most importantly, the original machinery was replaced with technology featuring a high degree of automation.

"In the whole continuous production cycle from the tobacco stock house, through the preparatory shop, production and cigarette packaging to dispatching thereof, a share of human labour has reduced to a minimum," Technical Department head Ing. Milan Mlynarčík characterizes one of the transformation aspects.

Nevertheless, the position of the tobacco factory with a daily production capacity of 31 million of cigarettes as one of the largest employers of the Kežmarok district have come out completely unscathed from it. When changing the first and second shifts, 400 employees right from Spišská Belá and surrounding municipalities alike pass through the plantis gate, many of them representing the symbol of continuity with the past. The Ištocys, for one, represent in the factoryis history the fourth generation of employees. The most numerous are three-generation dynasties of tobacco people represented by the Tomas, Mačura, Tkáč, Just, Vdovják, Stoklas, Lopatovský, Jezerčák, Gancarčík families.

"One is sure" says František Majlander who carries on after his grandmother and father with the tradition of a family relationship to the tobacco-maker, "a world repute has come over to the factory along with Reemtsma."

Until recently, low rotation speed machines from Škoda Pilsen had been used for production, with no built-in control, with the only possibility of visually tracking the production results and related impacts on quality," M. Mlynarčík notes.

"With the new technology from renowned German, Italian and English producers we have taken over the entire quality control know-how developed by Reemtsma and our products meet European and world parameters," A. Sabolová stresses.

While an annual volume of production in the past culminated at 4 billion cigarettes, today it stands at 7.7 billion. Recently the product range comprised eight brands, now their number reaches 60 various variants. Appearance and taste parameters saw a substantial rise over the preceeding year.

"It was a crucial step", A. Sabolová underlines the importance of the foreign investoris entry, "thanks to which modernity dominates the production of cigarettes in this place in the full sense of word."