Author: Staff Writer

Filtrona plc is to be renamed Essentra plc from June 26 and the company’s various divisions will be renamed later this year.

Filtrona Filter Products will become Essentra Filter Products while Payne and Contego will be brought together under the name Essentra Packaging.

In a press note, Payne and Contego said the name Essentra had been chosen to capture what each of Filtrona’s businesses manufactured and supplied: millions of small but essential components that often played a ‘critical enabling role in the products of our customers, everywhere and every day’.

According to the note, Filtrona, as part of its Vision 2015 strategy, has been creating a more unified culture. And hence the Essentra brand will be adopted by each of Filtrona’s businesses in a change from the current situation where the corporate name and logo is used by some but not all divisions.

One other change will see Filtrona’s Coated & Security Products division, of which Payne and Contego are a part, being renamed Packaging & Securing Solutions.

Imperial Tobacco is strengthening its ties with a charity working to end child labor in tobacco growing areas of the world.

In a note posted on its website, the company said that all of its executive directors were leading by example by championing specific areas of responsibility, ranging from sustainable sourcing to employee well-being, in support of its ‘Our values, Our responsibility’ initiative.

As part of the initiative, group finance director, Bob Dyrbus, who has chosen to champion the elimination of child labour, visited the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT) offices in Geneva to learn more about the work they do and discuss their future ambitions.

“This is an important organization in terms of the children it helps and also in supporting our supply chain integrity,” said Dyrbus.

After the visit, ECLT executive director, Sonia Velazquez, said the ECLT team had felt “very inspired” by Dyrbus’ commitment and ideas.

“Having an additional source of support and strategic advice will help with the development of our funding strategy and raise the profile of our organization across the wider industry,” she said.

Although tobacco taxes are often raised with the stated intention that the additional revenue will be spent on smoking cessation programs; the truth is that it is usually frittered away.

A recent story by Petro S Ka Sfikis and Mike Trinh for the Attleboro Sun Chronicle is illustrative.

‘Twenty years ago, supporters of a tobacco tax increase for Massachusetts had lofty goals for the money,’ they wrote.

‘A voter-approved 1992 ballot initiative nearly doubled the cigarette tax from 26 cents to 51 cents a pack to fund the creation of the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program. The program used advertising, counseling and other steps to help smokers quit.

‘// // By 1994, the program’s budget was $52.2 million – about 22 per cent of the tax revenue.

‘But although the tax was increased three more times to the current $2.51 a pack, spending on anti-smoking programs dropped 92 per cent as more and more tax revenue was used to plug gaps in the state budget.

‘This fiscal year, state government will collect a combined $815 million in tobacco taxes and payments from a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies. It will spend $4.1 million on anti-tobacco programs – less than 1 per cent of total revenues.

‘The programs could see even less money in the next budget despite the likely passage of another $1-per-pack tax increase. The $165 million from the hike is already earmarked for the state’s transportation system.

‘Other states have gone in similar directions.’

What is particularly odd about the above is that tobacco use, and especially cigarette consumption, is seen by many people in authority as being one of the most destructive forces society faces.

The full story is at: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/blowing-smoke-most-tobacco-money-going-elsewhere/article_5352c94a-72c2-532c-9611-0b98b8261177.html

British American Tobacco is considering putting up a factory in the Philippines within the next two years in a move that would involve an investment on top of the $200 million it has already committed to the country, according to a story in The Star.

“We will need a factory here at some point,” James Lafferty, BAT Philippines’ general manager, was quoted as saying. “We’re still studying the factory but it will be on top of the $200 million.”

Lafferty said the company was looking at various options, which included acquiring an existing factory and putting up a distribution site or a major manufacturing facility.

He said the factory could complement or even compete with BAT’s manufacturing plant in Malaysia.

The $200 million of investments is committed to a five-year program to beef up the company’s distribution and hire additional people, perhaps bringing staff levels to 300 by the end of this year.

Lafferty said that since the passage of the excise tax reform law this year, the industry’s new players, including BAT and Japan Tobacco, had strengthened their presence and introduced new brands.

“This is the beauty of free market,” he said.

About 2.4 per cent of Chinese women – some 13 million – smoke, according to the All-China Women’s Federation, quoting ‘China‘s Report on the Harm of Smoking’.

The federation warned that the risk of contracting HPV (human papilloma virus) was 3.0 times higher among women who smoked 15 cigarettes a day than among non-smokers.

It said that the risk of women smokers contracting lung cancer was 4.7 times higher than risk run non-smokers, and the risk of smokers suffering breast cancer was 40.0 per cent higher.

Smoking could lead to infertility and the chances of a pregnant woman who smoked having a child with birth defects was about two to three times higher than that for non-smokers.

In none of these cases was the actual risk mentioned.

The federation said that smoking accelerated the aging process.

In most parts of the world, May 31 was marketed as world no tobacco day, but in Medan, North Sumatra, a number of activists supporting the Indonesian Kretek Community (KKI) staged a rally expressing their support for the nation’s tobacco industry.

Medan KKI co-ordinator, Chaidir Harahap, was reported as having said that world no tobacco day was part of a ploy by foreign countries to destroy the tobacco industry.

But, he said, white-stick and kretek cigarettes were some of the biggest assets Indonesia had. “In 2012, cigarette duties earned for state coffers amounted to Rp68 trillion [US$6.88 billion],” Chaidir was said to have told The Jakarta Post.

He said foreign parties were trying to control tobacco use nationally by promoting health concerns linked to smoking.

He pointed out also that two major national cigarette companies, Sampoerna and Bentoel, had been taken over by foreign companies, and he said that thousands of small-scale cigarette producers had gone bankrupt.

“Don’t let our country become bankrupt just because our natural resources, including tobacco, which have been the nation’s biggest assets, are being dominated by foreign parties,” said Chaidir.

A ban on retail cigarette price discounts is to be one of a number of new tobacco regulations to be introduced in Malaysia, according to a story in The Star.

Smoking bans are to be extended to take in all roofed areas; so covered walkways will be included.

In addition, maximum cigarette tar and nicotine deliveries will be reduced in two phases from the current 20 mg and 1.5 mg to 10 mg and 1 mg by 2015.

At the same time, graphic warnings will be increased in size so as to take up half of the front panel.

And a ban will be imposed on all direct and indirect tobacco-products promotions.

Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, has discouraged any parties, including NGOs, from getting direct or indirect sponsorship from tobacco companies.

He said tobacco companies should not be allowed to use corporate social responsibility programs as a tool to promote their brands.

“The sponsorship may be for a noble cause but we don’t agree with the source,” he said.

Japan’s Health Ministry wants the incidence of smoking in Japan reduced to 12 per cent by 2022, according to a Japan Daily Press story.

Currently 19.5 per cent of Japanese people smoke, down from 27.7 per cent in 2000, but the proportion of smokers among men aged 30 to 40 is about 40 per cent.

Hiroyuki Noda, the ministry’s tobacco free initiative officer, said recently that his organization had started a scheme to try to support those who wished to quit smoking.

The ministry had started initiatives such as offering free counseling via telephone and treating nicotine addiction under the government’s health insurance program.

South   Korea’s Health and Welfare Minister, Chin Young, has promised to try to convince the country’s lawmakers to pass a bill that would enforce the printing of graphic warnings on cigarette packs, according to a story in The Korea Times.

His comment has been seen as an effort to break a stalemate over the issue.

Government agencies are divided over such health warnings. Last year, the health ministry proposed a bill that would have required tobacco companies to include warnings comprising graphic pictures and warning texts in large letters.

However, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance has questioned the effectiveness of such a campaign, while, at the same time, saying that it fears that tax income from tobacco consumption will fall if the measure is introduced.

The government earns about WON7 trillion from tobacco-related taxes.

Progress of the bill stalled last year, forcing the Prime Minister’s Office, which co-ordinates the passage of government bills, to recommend that relevant ministries reach a consensus on the issue.