The board of directors of Philip Morris International yesterday increased the company’s regular quarterly dividend by 10.4 per cent to an annualized rate of $3.40 per share.
The new quarterly dividend of $0.85 per share, up from $0.77 per share, is payable on October 11 to stockholders of record as of September 27.
The ex-dividend date is September 25.
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A workshop on ‘Packaging of unhealthy products’ is to be held at the European parliament inBrusselson September 19.
The workshop is being organized by the Policy Department A-Economy and Science for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Safety.
It will be held from 12.30 hours until 14.30 hours in Room ASP A3G3.
Part one of the workshop agenda is entitled ‘On marketing’ and will include presentations on ‘The power of packaging from a commercial and marketing point of view: “Marketing” techniques to promote public health’; and on the ‘Psychological effects of health warning labels’.
Part two, on ‘Regulating information on unhealthy products inEurope’, will include a presentation on ‘Misleading packaging’ and ‘The NGO response’.
Would-be participants needing a badge must register by September 14 at: eva.asplund@europarl.europa.eu.
The workshop comes as the European Commission is considering including recommendations on the plain packaging of tobacco products as part of its proposed revisions of its tobacco products directive.
Yunnanprovince’s application for an increased quota on cigarette production to boost tobacco tax and help with earthquake disaster relief has ignited public criticism inChina, according to a story by Shan Juan for The China Daily and quoting china.org.cn.
A number of earthquakes hit a mountainous area ofYunnanon September 7, leaving 81 people dead and 821 injured.
To help pay for reconstruction, the provincial economic planning body has applied to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) for permission to increase cigarette production by 20 billion.
If given the green light, the province could earn Yuan600 million in additional tobacco tax, which would go to fund reconstruction in quake-hit areas, according to the Yunnan Development and Reform Commission.
But Wang Ke’an, an anti-tobacco campaigner with theThinkTankResearchCenterfor Health Development, an NGO committed to smoking control, opposes the move.
“The NDRC shouldn’t give its nod as it’s absurd to use the money from selling death to help with disaster relief,” he told the Daily.
In China, tobacco production is carried out on the basis of quotas set by the NDRC, the country’s economic planner.
Swedish Match (SM) is giving a new appearance to all of the variants that make up its General brand of snus so as to give them a more uniform design.
In a press note posted on its website, SM said General wasSweden’s most widely sold snus and that it was growing in popularity in other countries.
The brand has been in existence for nearly 150 years and, during that time, has appeared in more than 20 different packaging designs.
The original recipe for General was developed in 1866 by Johan A. Boman, who selected tobacco of the highest quality and topped it with a drop of bergamot oil.
‘The result was the unique flavor that came to define the Swedish snus experience,’ the press note said.
General is still produced according to Boman’s basic recipe, though it has evolved and is currently available in 14 different varieties inSwedenandNorwayalone.
“The snus requirements of consumers have been refined and we have adapted the product over the years,” says Markus Eileryd, senior brand manager for General. “Along the way, however, the design profile of the product portfolio has suffered.”
Nevertheless, Eileryd said that General’s was a “fantastic success story”.
Today, SM sold more than 90 million cans annually, and now it was vitalizing the design so as to enhance the premium sensation while capitalizing on the brand’s historical origins.
The new design was a better match to the product experience, he added.
InAustralia, young people are smoking less but the nation’s waistline is growing, according to an Associated Press story quoting a new report into health risk factors.
The report, released on Tuesday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), compared key risk factors for health, including being overweight, being obese, being physically inactive, having a poor diet, smoking and ‘excessive alcohol consumption over time’.
AIHW spokeswoman Dr. Lynelle Moon said these were the key risk factors for diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
Moon said monitoring the risk factors was important in guiding and targeting preventive health interventions.
The Danish government is capitulating in the face of EU demands that it bans all forms of snus, according to a story in the Copenhagen Post.
Although the sale of pouched snus is banned inDenmark, it is currently legal to sell loose snus there.
The capitulation comes following a formal notice in June from the EU Commission warning thatDenmarkwould be hauled before the courts in violation of the EU tobacco directive prohibiting the sale of tobacco for oral use.
“The Danish government noted the commission’s assessment and decided to submit a bill by the end of March 2013 banning the sale of loose snus inDenmark,” the health minister, Astrid Krag, wrote in a note to the European Affairs Committee.
Many people believe that the consumption of snus is at least 90 per cent less risky than is smoking, but the effect of the change will mean that this product is banned while cigarettes remain on sale.
According to Commission figures, inSweden, the only EU country where snus may be sold, the incidence of smoking stands at 13.5 per cent. InDenmark, that figure stands at 22.0 per cent and inIrelandit is 31.0 per cent.
South Korea’s cigarettes are the least expensive in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), while the country’s smoking rate is the group’s second highest, according to a Korea Herald story quoting figures from the European Commission.
The Commission surveyed the prices of the best-selling products in 22 OECD member nations this year.
At Won2,500 for a pack of 20 cigarettes, Korea had the lowest cigarette prices and had the second-highest adult smoking rate, 44.3 per cent, following Greece, with 46.3 per cent.
“Increasing the prices of cigarettes is highly necessary in a time when the smoking rate for male and female senior high school students has reached 25 per cent and eight per cent,” a health ministry official was quoted as saying. “The most effective way to curb smoking is raise the prices of cigarettes.”
But this view doesn’t seem to be supported by the figures. A list published with the Herald story that showed the 10 OECD countries with the highest cigarette prices had Ireland at the top of the price league but also second from the top of the smoking incidence league.
Excluding Sweden, where the figures are heavily influenced by the availability and popularity of snus, the country with the lowest smoking incidence,Finland, was second from the bottom of the cigarette price league.
Chinese and US health authorities on Friday launched a joint campaign aimed at promoting smoke-free workplaces in China, according to a China Daily story relayed by Tobacco China Online.
Established by China’s Ministry of Health and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the China-US Partnership on Smoke-free Workplaces has pledged to recruit participants from companies operating in China by January 2014.
“Establishing smoke-free workplaces is the responsibility and obligation of business leaders, as well as an important measure for promoting a company’s image and protecting the health of its employees,” said Huang Jiefu, China’s vice health minister.
Meanwhile, Howard Koh, assistant secretary of the HHS, said the US government would work with its Chinese colleagues on educating the public, promoting cessation services at workplaces and encouraging companies to take part in the campaign.
The campaign is said to have already attracted 59 leading enterprises operating inChina.
Imperial Tobacco has introduced a new confidential hotline to enable those connected with its business to raise concerns about possible malpractice.
In a note on its website, Imperial said that, as a responsible business, it had procedures in place for allowing its employees, suppliers and contractors to speak up: a process often known as whistle-blowing.
‘The system has been enhanced to enable this to happen 24 hours a day seven days a week using an international phone service, free of charge,’ the note said.
‘Our policy and procedures have been translated into 36 languages and information sent to around 90 locations in more than 80 countries where we operate. It is also available on our corporate website.’
Trevor Williams, deputy company secretary, said there was a “high degree of cross-functional collaboration involved to successfully roll-out our enhanced whistle-blowing procedures across the business”.
“Speaking up is important to us because it supports our commitment to enable our people to feel confident to raise any concerns they may have,” he added.