Category: News This Week

  • Supplier engagement recognized

    Supplier engagement recognized

    British American Tobacco (BAT) has been awarded a position on the Supplier Engagement Leaderboard compiled by global environmental impact non-profit organization CDP. The listing identifies BAT as a global leader for engaging with its suppliers on climate change.

    CDP recognized BAT for its actions and strategies to reduce emissions and manage climate risks in its supply chain in the past reporting year. More than 4,800 companies were assessed by CDP. They were given a supplier engagement rating based on answers to questions about governance, targets, scope 3 emissions, value chain engagement of their response to the CDP 2019 climate change questionnaire and their overall CDP climate change score.

    BAT is among the top 3 percent of organizations assessed by CDP and one of almost 160 companies on this year’s leaderboard.

    “Climate change is a global issue, and multi-stakeholder collaboration to address its impacts and find innovative new solutions for a low-carbon economy is essential,” said Simon Cleverly, group head of corporate affairs at BAT.

    “Partnering with suppliers and other stakeholders across our value chain is a key element of our mission to reach our science-based targets, and I’m delighted that our work in this area has been recognized by inclusion on the CDP Supplier Engagement Leaderboard.”

    “Congratulations to all the companies on the CDP Supplier Engagement Leaderboard for this year,” said Dexter Galvin, director of corporates and supply chains at CDP.

    “They are showing leadership on engaging their suppliers to manage climate risk and cut emissions. Given that supply chain emissions are on average 5.5 times as high as a company’s operational emissions, this couldn’t be more crucial. If we are to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and decarbonize the economy, then other companies learning from these leaders and engaging their suppliers is going to be vital.”

  • Juul sued for ‘predatory’ marketing

    Juul sued for ‘predatory’ marketing

    Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is suing Juul Labs for “creating a youth vaping epidemic,” citing predatory marketing and advertising campaigns.

    Filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, the suit demands that Juul pay for the costs associated with combating the public health crisis affecting young people across Massachusetts.

    According to the lawsuit, Juul intentionally chose fashionable models and images that appeal to young people for its ads.

    The lawsuit also alleges the company knowingly collected email addresses associated with users who were not age verified for its marketing list and illegally sold and shipped products to underage customers.

    Juul has denied that it has ever marketed to young people and said no one underage should use its nicotine vapor products.

    “While we have not yet reviewed the complaint, we remain focused on resetting the vapor category in the U.S. and earning the trust of society by working cooperatively with attorneys general, regulators, public health officials, and other stakeholders to combat underage use and transition adult smokers from combustible cigarettes,” Juul said in a statement.

  • Maryland bans disposables

    Maryland bans disposables

    Maryland will become the first state to ban the flavored disposable e-cigarettes that are exempt under U.S. President Trump’s federal flavor ban. Tobacco and menthol flavors are excluded from Maryland’s measure.

    Trump’s flavor ban went into effect last week, removing flavored pod products from the market, but it exempts single-use disposable products as well as open tank systems.

    “I will not stand idly by letting kids get addicted to nicotine and hurt by these unregulated products that are marketed directly towards them,” Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said in a statement.

    Franchot’s office sent a notice to the state’s tobacco retailers and wholesalers, warning that they will be disciplined if caught selling flavored disposable products.

  • Price increase approved

    Price increase approved

    The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) in the Philippines approved higher minimum buying prices for tobacco for the next two years. Tobacco floor prices will increase by PHP2 ($0.04) for all types and grades after an agreement was reached between farmers and the private sector.

    The price increase for Virginia, burley and native tobacco will go into effect immediately upon the approval of the NTA governing board. It will be applicable for the 2020 and 2021 trading years.

  • ‘Transformational’ year for Swedish Match

    ‘Transformational’ year for Swedish Match

    Swedish Match reported sales of SEK14.74 billion ($1.53 billion) in 2019, up 14 percent over its 2018 sales. Fourth quarter sales increased 19 percent to SEK3.93 billion.

    Operating profit was down 8 percent to SEK1.1 billion for the fourth quarter but was up 10 percent to SEK5.31 billion for the full year. Operating profit from product segments was up 22 percent to SEK1.53 billion for the fourth quarter and up 18 percent to SEK5.83 billion for the full year.

    “In many respects, 2019 will stand out as a transformational year for Swedish Match—a year in which we not only delivered record sales and operating profit from product segments, but also where the company, aligned with our vision, established itself as the clear market leader for nicotine pouches in the United States and began offering nicotine pouches to markets outside of our core Scandinavian and U.S. markets,” said Lars Dahlgren, CEO of Swedish Match.

    “The group’s outstanding financial performance in 2019 further reflects our commitment to our vision as the snus and moist snuff product segment accounted for essentially all of our growth in sales and operating profit from product segments in local currencies.”

    In related news, Swedish Match announced it will increase production capacity for its tobacco-free nicotine pouch product, ZYN.

    Swedish Match began rolling out ZYN across the U.S. last year, and the company recently decided to expand its U.S. plant. “Given the market success of ZYN, we have recently decided to once again expand capacity,” the company said in a statement. “The fourth phase, which is planned to be completed in 2022, will involve building expansion as well as processing and packaging lines that will increase annualized installed capacity to more than 200 million cans.”

  • Crawley joins Parkside

    Chris Crawley

    Parkside Flexibles has appointed Chris Crawley as manager of business development in the Americas.

    Headquartered in the U.K., and with factories in the U.K. and Malaysia, Parkside supplies print materials to the tobacco and related industries.

    Crawley is well known in the tobacco and related sectors and will broaden Parkside’s contacts and business.

    He can be reached at +1 804 873 5146 and chris.crawley@parksideflex.com.

  • Pyxus reports results

    Pyxus reports results

    Pyxus International announced its third quarter results for the period ending Dec. 31, 2019.

    The company’s sales and other operating revenue decreased to $363.3 million for the three months from $524.5 million for the same period in 2018. Gross profit was down to $55.1 million from $74.7 million in 2018.

    As a percentage of sales, however, gross profit improved to 15.2 percent from 14.2 percent, due to favorable currency exchange rate fluctuations resulting in lower green leaf  inventory prices in Africa and South America.

    “Two years into our One Tomorrow initiative, we have made significant operational progress against our strategy to transform the business and become a purpose-led company,” said Pieter Sikkel, chairman, president and CEO of Pyxus.

    “With products spanning more than five different categories, Pyxus is well on its path to becoming a diversified agricultural technology and consumer products goods company. Across all of our business segments, we strongly believe that our commitment to transparency, sustainability, quality and growth based on market demand will position us as a stronger company prepared to meet the requirements of the international market.”

  • FDA may lose tobacco remit

    FDA may lose tobacco remit

    The Trump administration wants to remove the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority.

    In his 2021 budget proposal, released on Monday, President Donald Trump envisions the CTP as a stand-alone agency with a Senate-approved director.

    The budget proposal states that making the CTP its own agency would allow the FDA to “focus on its traditional mission of ensuring the safety of the nation’s food and medical products supply” while “a new agency with the singular mission on tobacco and its impact on public health would have greater capacity to respond strategically to the growing complexity of new tobacco products.”

    Public health advocates reacted strongly against the proposal, saying it would roll back any forward motion the FDA has had in terms of regulating tobacco products. Creating “a new stand-alone agency to handle tobacco regulation is the wrong idea at the wrong time,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

    Public health advocates already feel that Trump’s recently enacted flavor ban is too weak because it allows for single-use disposable flavored products to remain on the market, which they believe youth will gravitate toward in the absence of other flavored products. The ban removes flavored pod products with the exception of tobacco and menthol flavors from the market.

    Some fear that having a Senate-approved director of this new agency would politicize the regulation of the industry—it could “greatly politicize its management and activities,” said Eric N. Lindblom, senior scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law and a former director of the FDA CTP’s Office of Policy.

    The FDA was granted oversight of tobacco in 2009 under the Obama administration. The CTP was then created within the FDA to regulate the industry. The CTP would remain under the Department of Health and Human Services under the new budget proposal.

  • Ad investigated

    Ad investigated

    Health Canada and its Quebec counterpart are investigating a vaping ad by Imperial Tobacco to see if it violates advertising laws, reports CBC.

    The ad warns of “an epidemic of disinformation” and “hypocrisy” surrounding vaping.

    The Tobacco and Vaping Products Act states that it is illegal to “promote a vaping product, including by means of the packaging, by comparing the health effects arising from the use of the product or from its emissions with those arising from the use of a tobacco product or from its emissions.”

    Imperial’s “Facts not Fear” website appears to violate that section of the law on the home page and at least seven times on the three pages accessible from the main site, according to Health Canada.

    “Everything we do, from our point of view, is legal,” said Eric Gagnon, head of corporate and regulatory affairs for Imperial. “We’ll never do anything illegal. I can assure you that the advertisement, the campaign ahead of publishing looked at every detail, and we consider the advertisement to be legal.”

    Imperial appears to have made slight changes to the website recently, removing references to its Vype vapor device.

    “Inspectors are currently reviewing the ad and the associated websites,” the federal health minister’s office said.

  • Deadline given

    Deadline given

    British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International have until early March to defend themselves in a lawsuit in Brazil about compensation for tobacco-related diseases, reports Reuters.

    The lawsuit was filed by the solicitor general’s office in May 2019, seeking to recover the costs for the treatment of 26 tobacco-related diseases over the previous five years.

    The companies have refused to receive subpoenas delivered to their local subsidiaries (Souza Cruz Ltda, Philip Morris Brasil Industra e Comercio Ltda and Philip Morris Brasil) since last year. The companies, which produce 90 percent of the cigarettes sold in Brazil, maintained they were only subsidiaries and notifications had to be sent directly to their respective parent companies’ headquarters in Britain and the United States.

    The federal judge hearing the case ruled that the companies are operational wings of the parent companies and can relate messages to their respective head offices. The judge gave them 30 days to present their defenses.

    “It is very important that international headquarters are also held accountable,” said Adriana Carvalho, the Alliance to Control Smoking’s legal director. “They profit from the business in Brazil and have always exercised power of control over their Brazilian units.”