Category: News This Week

  • Plain packaging fails to recognize adult smokers have right to choose

    The New Zealand government’s proposal to force cigarettes into ‘plain packaging’ fails to respect adult smokers who wish to run their own lives and make their own decisions, British American Tobacco New Zealand (BATNZ) has said in a press note.

    “There is already universal awareness of the risks associated with smoking,” said Steve Rush, general manager BATNZ. “A large portion of the pack has graphic warnings which make the packaging very unappealing. “Plain packaging is unnecessary and a step too far.

    “We agree that tobacco is harmful and needs to be regulated in a reasonable and proportionate way. But we disagree with disproportionate regulation that only serves to stigmatize and frustrate the many adult New Zealanders who have taken personal responsibility for their choice to smoke.”

    BATNZ’s position is more fully expressed at: http://www.agreedisagree.co.nz/our-view.html.

  • Medvedev threatens smokers: these tobacco laws are “just the beginning”

    Russia’s Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has said that a proposed anti-tobacco law was “just the beginning” of a campaign to counter high mortality rates in the country, according to a story by Stepan Kravchenko and Henry Meyer for Bloomberg News.

    The government is due to submit the bill to lawmakers by November 1, outlawing all cigarette advertising and sponsorship immediately and banning sales in smaller retail outlets and smoking in public places from January 1, 2015.

    More significantly, the Health Ministry has proposed raising taxes to RUB4,000 per 1,000 cigarettes by the end of 2015 from RUB510 this year, according to a letter from Health Minister, Veronika Skvortsova, to the deputy prime minister, Olga Golodets.

    Such a move would escalate Russia’s cigarette tax policy. Excise taxes were already scheduled to increase by about 40 per cent a year between now and the end of 2014 under current government policy.

  • State-owned Nepalese tobacco factory might be leased to private sector

    Nepal’s Public Enterprises Management Board has recommended leasing the assets and management of the Janakpur Cigarette Factory to the private sector, according to a story in Republica.

    The Board believes this is the only course of action that might lead to the revival of the state-owned tobacco company, which has been closed for two years.

    The recommendation is contained in a report that the Board, a government advisory body on the functioning of public enterprises, is due to hand to the Ministry of Finance.

    It will be implemented only if the finance ministry and the Cabinet give the go-ahead.

    Leasing out the factory to the private sector had been recommended, in part, because the Board believed the government should not be involved in the production of goods, such as cigarettes, that were harmful, Board member Narayan Bajaj was quoted as saying.

    Bajaj, a chartered accountant, said also that the Board believed it was time for private sector involvement in running the factory since the government had failed to generate profits and had lost a significant level of market share to private companies.

  • Tobacco and alcohol would be off limits under smart-card welfare scheme

    UK Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, is aiming to prevent welfare money from being spent on cigarettes and alcohol, according to a story in the Telegraph relayed by the TMA.

    Smith has apparently directed department officials to study whether welfare recipients should receive their payments on smart cards, rather than in cash, with the cards limited for use only on ‘priority’ items, such as food, housing, clothing, education and health care.

    One of Smith’s close aides said the secretary was serious about the issue because some claimants were spending their welfare money to “fund a habit and children are going hungry.”

    The smart cards would be modelled after Australia’s ‘basics card’ scheme, under which claimants use electronic ‘credit’ cards to purchase ‘priority’ items at approved stores across the country.

    Smith said he was against using US-style food stamps because they were often traded as a form of currency.

  • Tobacco farmers better off

    Farmers in Bangladesh grow tobacco because it yields the highest return of any crop and provides the grower with a large sum of money in one payment, according to a Dhaka Daily Star story quoting the results of a study conducted by the Policy Research Institute.

    The study found, too, that tobacco farmers were much better off than were farmers who did not grow tobacco in respect of income and asset holdings.

    At the same time, more than two thirds of the farmers studied reported that tobacco did not compete with food crops.

    The report was entitled ‘Tobacco cultivation: an assessment of socio-economic and environmental impacts’.

  • BAT fined over French tobacco advert

    A French court has ordered British American Tobacco France and its former president, Ricardo De Almeida Orlander, to pay fines of respectively €50,000 and €5,000 for the illegal advertising of tobacco and tobacco products, according to a story in Le Figaro.

    BAT and De Almeida were taken to court by the non-smokers’ rights association DNF in a case that started about a year ago.

  • Lorillard to host results conference call

    Lorillard is due to host a conference call at www.lorillard.com beginning at 09.00 hours Eastern Time on October 24 following the release of its third quarter results.

    The conference call, for analysts and investors, will be hosted by chairman, president and CEO, Murray S. Kessler, and executive vice president, finance and planning and CFO, David H. Taylor.

    The conference call will be available, too, by telephone at (888) 239-6824 (domestic) or (706) 902-3787 (international), using the pass code 37603411.

    A replay of the conference call will be available through November 7 at the website or by telephone at (855) 859-2056 (domestic) or (404) 537-3406 (international), using the pass code 37603411.

  • Holograms trade body welcomes ISO standard

     

    Ian-Lancaster
    Ian Lancaster, general secretary of the International Hologram Manufacturers Association

    The International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) has welcomed the first international standard to provide guidance for businesses on protecting their products from counterfeits.

    ISO 12931 covers “Performance criteria for authentication solutions used to combat counterfeiting of material goods” and will bring significant benefits to the hologram industry, says the trade body.

    The IHMA, which was involved from an early stage in developing the standard, says ISO 12931 offers new and objective guidance for brand owners and other rights holders on how to proceed when it comes to protecting their products from counterfeiters using security devices like holograms.

    According to IHMA general secretary Ian M Lancaster, brand owners and other rights holders previously relied on authentication device providers to guide them through the requirements for the protection of their material goods, which was less than ideal.

    “Now, brand owners will be equipped with an objective guide to how to proceed, which will encourage more to take counterfeiting seriously and look at developing effective strategies to protect against it.”

    He adds that ISO 12931 will promote the use of authentication solutions, particularly encouraging the use of overt and covert solutions–functional categories that can be combined in one hologram.

    “The new standard is a significant step forward and will bring welcome benefits to the hologram industry.

    “It is now up to secure hologram suppliers to build compliance with ISO 12931 in to their marketing materials and training.”

    ISO 12931 is available to download from www.iso.org/iso/home/store  and will also be available from national standards agencies.

  • Bulgaria’s cigarette excise tax stability leads to big drop in illicit trade

    The share of sales of illicit cigarettes inBulgariawas estimated to have fallen to 15.3 per cent of the market by the middle of this year, according to a Novinite story quoting a survey conducted by an independent, unnamed market research company at the request of tobacco companies.

    The results were presented on Thursday during a special meeting with the Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, and Customs Agency head, Vanyo Tanov.

    According to the survey, the mid-2012 figure represented the second consecutive year in which illicit sales had fallen.

    Illicit sales accounted for 34.0 per cent of the market in 2010 but had fallen to 23.3 per cent last year.

    The researchers attributed the fall in illicit sales to the government’s policy of keeping the excise duty rate unchanged since 2010, and to the efforts of state institutions.

  • JT’s first half sales up

    Japan Tobacco Inc’s domestic cigarette sales volume during September, at 9.5 billion, was down by 2.8 per cent on its September 2011 volume, 9.8 billion, which itself was down by 60.4 per cent on that of September 2010, according to preliminary figures issued by the company today.

    Volume during the six months, April-September, at 59.6 billion, was up by 17.0 per cent on its April-September 2011 volume, 50.9 billion, which was down by 41.2 per cent on that of April-September 2010.

    JT’s market share for April-September 2012 was 59.5 per cent, against 54.9 per cent for the full year to the end of March.

    JT has suffered huge volume swings in recent times because of an unprecedented, mainly tax-driven price hike on October 1, 2010, and the massive disruption caused to the company’s manufacturing and distribution operations following the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 last year.

    JT’s domestic cigarette revenue during September, at ¥52.2 billion, was down by 2.9 per cent on its September 2011 revenue, ¥53.8 billion, which itself was down by 46.1 per cent on that of September 2010.

    Revenue during April-September, at ¥327.9 billion, was up by 17.4 per cent on its revenue during April-September 2011, ¥279.4 billion, which was down by 20.4 per cent on that of April-September 2010.