Imperial ups fight against illicit trade

Imperial Tobacco said today it had rolled out Case Trace technology in four European factories and six markets to enable it better to combat the illicit trade in tobacco products.

“A cross-functional project team comprising Group IS, Global Engineering and Supply Chain plus factory and market teams worked for two years to successfully implement the technology,” according to a note posted on its website.

“Markets can use Case Trace to track bulk supplies to customers and identify any that falls outside the legitimate supply chain.

“This can be used as evidence for authorities to seize illegal product and demonstrates our commitment to the OLAF [EU anti-fraud office] anti-illicit trade agreement.”

“The Coding and Tracking project managers have done a fantastic job in driving this work, but they couldn’t have done so without the efforts of hundreds of others all working together,” said Olaf Huderitz, head of Supply Chain Services and project sponsor.

Case Trace is now operational in 11 factories covering 13 EU markets.

The next phase will see it rolled out in Germany and global duty free.