Category: News This Week

Altadis is to axe about eight per cent of its workforce in Spain, according to stories in El Pais and Agence France Presse.

The 114 job cuts form part of the company’s plan to ‘increase efficiency and competitiveness’ in the face of ‘the complex situation the tobacco market in Spain is going through’.

Seventy six of the 114 people set to lose their jobs work at the Cadiz factory, which is to be closed.

Most of the workers to be laid off are to be offered early retirement and those at the Cadiz factory who are not eligible for early retirement will be found work at other factories.

The company, which is owned by the Imperial Tobacco group, said that its sales had fallen by 40 per cent during the past four years due largely to regulatory pressures and the rise of the illicit trade, which now accounts for about 12 per cent of the market.

The South Korean Air Force has decided to disqualify smokers from applying for its pilot selection test, according to a story in the Yonhap News Agency.

Starting next month, applicants who test positive for nicotine will not be eligible for flight training.

And to force pilots who smoke to quit the habit, the military authorities plan to suspend those who test positive for nicotine during their regular check-ups.

The decision to disqualify smokers is said to be aimed at selecting pilots who have ‘a strong willingness to maintain a sound body,’ unnamed Air Force officers were quoted as saying.

The Air Force has been pushing to implement a number of non-smoking measures, including the designation of all military bases and barracks non-smoking zones from July 1.

This move at least has drawn fire for possibly violating the rights of service people and the Air Force has changed its course so as to allow smoking rooms to be set up at least 50 meters away from barracks.

A Vermont Superior Court judge has ordered RJ Reynolds Tobacco to pay the state of Vermont $8.3 million in penalties for violating the state’s consumer protection laws, according to stories in the Vermont Business Magazine and Bloomberg News.

Judge Dennis Pearson imposed penalties based on Reynolds’ advertising of one of its tobacco products, Eclipse, as a “risk reduction” cigarette.

The judge issued an injunction that prohibits Reynolds from making ‘risk reduction’ claims for its tobacco products without supporting studies that have been accepted by the scientific community.

RJ Reynolds could appeal the decision.

“This decision is a multi-million-dollar wakeup call for Reynolds and other tobacco companies,” said Vermont Attorney General William H. Sorrell. “If you make unsubstantiated health claims about your deadly products, you will pay dearly.”

Iggesund Paperboard says that its Incada folding box board will, from the Northern Hemisphere autumn, be whiter and lighter, and incorporate a number of improved properties affecting printability.

Incada Exel, which is targeted more as a packaging board, will have too improved stiffness. For grammages over 300 g/m^2, this gain will be as much as 10 to 15 per cent. “This enables our customers to reduce their packaging weights while keeping the same protection for the contents,” said Robin Lewis, technical product manager for Incada.

‘Other substantial improvements have been made to the odour and taste properties so that Incada now comes in under the Robinson test’s detection limit of 0.6,’ an Iggesund press note said. ‘The whiteness is increased by 7.5 units to 120 on the CIE scale. Improvements are found in the L value which is critical for colour reproduction. Runnability is also improved, so Incada will now be able to function even better in customers’ processes.’

“Incada was introduced in 2001 and since then we’ve made many small changes to improve its quality,” Lewis says. “This is a big leap forward and it will definitely strengthen our market position.”

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.