BAT Introduces Innovative Recognition Technology at iNovina Kiosks

BAT, the only domestic manufacturer and exporter of tobacco and smoke-free products, has introduced a unique technology for verifying the age of customers across the entire network of the national kiosk chain iNovina, which operates in Croatia as part of BAT. The aim of BAT is to further strengthen preventive efforts to prevent the illegal sale of tobacco and other nicotine products to minors.

The technology is based on simple and rapid face scanning using a smartphone camera or a special device installed at iNovina kiosks, where the face-scanning application does not store photographs or in any way recognize or identify individuals, but rather determines the age of a person based on certain facial parameters using innovative and proven algorithms. In the testing phase at iNovina kiosks, the technology demonstrated high accuracy, exceeding 99 percent.

The iNovina network consists of 240 kiosks across Croatia, and after the successful completion of the testing phase, the project has been expanded to the entire network of kiosks. More than 450 iNovina employees have been trained on the use of the technology, which will assist them in ensuring that, alongside existing checks conducted in accordance with legal regulations, tobacco and other nicotine products are sold exclusively to adults.

– We do not want minors to ever use any of our tobacco or other nicotine products. BAT has a zero-tolerance policy in this regard. Our products are exclusively for adult smokers, which is clearly stated on product labels, and we conduct continuous training for all our retail partners to further emphasize the legal regulations prohibiting the sale of these products to minors. However, the technology has allowed us to introduce an additional level of prevention and assurance that our products are sold exclusively to adult customers. I am proud that Croatia has been chosen as the first country in the BAT group to launch this valuable project, which further highlights our social responsibility and transparency in the communication and sale of our products, ” said Zora Ilić, a member of the Management Board and Director of Corporate Communications, Regulatory Affairs, and Government Relations for the Adria cluster of BAT.

BAT is one of the largest private foreign investors in Croatia, having invested over 700 million euros in the country since 2015. BAT has initiated a significant investment cycle in the production of smoke-free products at its factory in Kanfanar, making it one of the most modern factories in the BAT group with the widest product range, positioning Croatia at the very center of the global BAT group’s transformation towards smoke-free products that represent the future of the industry. BAT in Croatia has a unique value chain that, in addition to the factory in Kanfanar, includes a logistics HUB in Rijeka, agricultural tobacco production in Slavonia and Podravina through Hrvatske duhane, a logistics hub in Pitomača that collects tobacco from as many as 26 countries and supplies factories in Poland, Germany, and Hungary, as well as the second largest national kiosk chain iNovine and a commercial office in Zagreb from which the Adria cluster is managed, covering eight markets – Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania. BAT employs over 1,500 people in Croatia, and as confirmed by a study from Oxford Economics, supports over 6,000 jobs across the country through its value chain.