DORTMUND, GERMANY — September 2026
Tobacco Journal International (TJI), the leading international trade magazine for the tobacco industry and its suppliers, has published a two-page feature on Protabaco in its issue 4/2026. The article, “Protabaco: Improving spares availability”, appears in the Leaf & Tobacco Processing section, pages 40 to 42, in the issue distributed at InterTabac and InterSupply in Dortmund.
It is the first feature on the company in TJI. Reto Walter Iten of RIM, Protabaco’s partner, was interviewed by the magazine in issue 6/2023, where he described the decision to set up the Santiago operation and move the majority of RIM’s spare parts stock to the Dominican Republic. This article picks up that story from the Dominican side.
What the article covers
Written with TJI’s editorial team, the piece looks at spare parts sourcing as a cost, planning and uptime variable in tobacco manufacturing, and at how a stock-first supplier fits alongside OEM and traditional channels in RFQ-driven procurement.
It describes Protabaco’s operating model: components for widely used and legacy platforms held in stock and quality-verified before release; sourcing of obsolete and hard-to-find mechanical parts; local representation of selected OEM-grade components, including the company’s agreements with Arkote and Esband for the Dominican market; and export from the Dominican Republic’s free zones, with required parts supplied within 24 to 48 hours in many cases.
A case from the field is included: a high-speed cigarette line stopped by a failed control card in an older-generation system, restored within a few shifts with a compatible OEM replacement that would have carried an extended lead time through conventional channels.
“Most factories already know what they need,” Peralta told TJI. “The real question is whether they can source it faster and more competitively, and that is where we focus.”
Pages 40 and 42 of TJI issue 4/2026. Click to download the article.
Why it matters
TJI’s readership is made up of tobacco product manufacturers and the suppliers of machinery, filters, papers and packaging that serve them, across Western Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. A feature in its pages puts Protabaco’s model in front of the procurement and engineering teams that run cigarette and cigar lines worldwide, in the same issue those teams carry home from Dortmund.
Read the article
Download the article (PDF, 2 pages)
Published in Tobacco Journal International, issue 4/2026. Edited by Marie Mayer, Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Reproduced with the kind permission of TJI / Konradin Selection GmbH.
About Tobacco Journal International
Tobacco Journal International (TJI) is the leading international trade magazine for executives in the tobacco industry and its supply chain, published six times a year by Konradin Selection GmbH, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany, with a global network of correspondents. Every issue covers the full sector, from leaf growing to the marketing of finished products, and reaches manufacturers of tobacco products, suppliers of machinery, filters, papers and packaging, leaf traders, research institutes and government ministries in more than 80 countries. TJI also publishes a weekly editorial newsletter and the Inter Supply Catalogue for the InterTabac and InterSupply fairs in Dortmund. tobaccojournal.com
