Category: News This Week

Turning Point Appoints Andrew Flynn CFO

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Turning Point Brands (TPB) has appointed Andrew Flynn as the company’s new chief financial officer (CFO), effective on or before April 1, 2024. Flynn is replacing Louie Reformina, who will step down to pursue other opportunities.
Prior to joining Turning Point Brands, Flynn served as the CFO of Connected Cannabis Co., where he was responsible for bringing sustained profitable growth, expanding geographically and recapitalizing the company. In this role, Flynn operationalized and reshaped the finance, IT, legal and compliance organizations to meet business objectives. Before joining Connected, he served as senior vice president of Juul Labs. Earlier in his career, he served as vice president of finance at James Hardie Building Products and vice president of finance at Arrow Electronics. Flynn holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Colorado Denver.
“Turning Point Brands is one of the most innovative and well-capitalized companies in the industry. TPB’s iconic Zig-Zag and Stoker’s brands and market-leading distribution platform set it apart in this rapidly evolving space. As CFO, I look forward to working with the board and management team to maximize long-term shareholder value,” said Flynn.
“Andrew has led key initiatives across all areas of finance and broader strategic planning throughout his career. His diverse operating background and industry expertise ideally positions him to help us maximize the value of our brands, continue to modernize our organization, and grow our free cash flow,” said Graham Purdy, Turning Point Brands’ president and CEO.
March 11, 2024
Habanos Announces Deal With Liquor Maker

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Chinese liquor company Luzhou Laojiao and Cuban cigar company Habanos SA have signed a strategic agreement to jointly expand their markets.
During the 24th Habano Festival in Havana, Cuba, Zhang Biao, general manager of Luzhou Laojiao, highlighted the similarities between Luzhou Laojiao’s liquor and Cuban cigars, noting that the cooperation will strengthen the commercial ties between China and Cuba.
The agreement includes a joint product through co-branding, with the Chinese company handling the marketing. José María López, vice president of development at Habanos, said that this partnership is based on shared values such as craftsmanship, quality and leadership, highlighting the “perfect match” between Chinese liquors and Cuban cigars.
Habanos executives reported that China is one of the most dynamic markets for Cuban cigar sales. The country contributed heavily to a 31 percent increase in Cuban cigar sales in 2023, reaching a total of $721 million.
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding aims to explore new avenues of cooperation for both companies. Luzhou Laojiao, one of China’s oldest liquors, has been produced in the National Treasure Cellars since 1573, with distillation technology dating back 700 years.
The collaboration will focus specifically on Luzhou Laojiao’s “Guojiao 1573” brand and Habanos Corporation’s Cohiba Atmosphere brand. In addition, seven Guojiao 1573 brand liqueurs were auctioned along with during the festival’s humidor auction, with the funds raised going to public health initiatives in Cuba.
“This strategic agreement strengthens commercial ties between China and Cuba in the liquor and cigar industries,” according to a press release.
March 11, 2024
TIMB Licenses 32 Contractors

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Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has licensed 32 contractors to buy leaf this season, reports The Herald.
The country’s tobacco auctions will open March 13, with the contract floors starting operations a day later.
To date, the regulator has licensed only two auction floors—the Tobacco Sales Floors and Premier Tobacco Auction Floor.
Contract sales will be conducted in Harare and at decentralized selling centers in Karoi, Mvurwi, Bindura, Marondera and Rusape.
TIMB Head of Operations Blessing Dhokotera reiterated that tobacco farmers would retain 75 percent of their proceeds in U.S. dollars and the remainder in local currency.
He also highlighted measures against child labor, side marketing and the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19 and cholera.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco production has suffered from drought this years, with officials predicting a harvest of 265 million kg this year, compared with 294 million kg in 2023, according to News Day.
The droughts are attributed to the El Nino climate phenomenon which involves a periodic warming of ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, near the equator, and can have significant impacts on weather patterns worldwide.
March 11, 2024
BAT Inaugurates Innovation Center

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Included in British American Tobacco’s new innovation center at Southampton, U.K., is a nicotine-pouch pilot plant that allows its researchers to go from concept to trial product in an hour. The investment in the pilot plant is presumably an indication of the confidence the company has in nicotine pouches, which sit comfortably alongside nicotine replacement therapy products on the continuum of risk and that are perhaps the most environment friendly of all the lower-risk products being used to assist smokers move away from cigarettes.
Officially opened on March 7 in the presence of BAT’s entire management board, the new center is housed within BAT’s research and development facility, which has been in operation since 1956 on a site occupied by the company for more than 100 years.
In a press note, BAT said the £30 million ($38.56 million) investment would support its mission to become a predominantly smokeless business in which 50 percent of its revenue was derived from non-combustibles by 2035.
The center provides nine specially designed technical spaces to aid the development of BAT’s portfolio of new category products. “These spaces are dedicated to research for modern oral nicotine pouches, for liquids and flavor for vapor products, for heated tobacco products, and for well-being and stimulation beyond nicotine,” the press note said. “The investment will also support work on packaging, engineering, innovation development and system integration…
“The new facilities will bring together cross-functional and key R&D teams—with 400 highly specialized scientists and engineers, drawn from a range of fields including biotechnology and clinical trials. These teams will accelerate the development of the next generation of BAT’s new category products and provide the robust evidence necessary to encourage adult smokers to switch to less risky alternatives, backed by science.’
James Murphy, director, research and science at BAT, said, “The opening of this new facility marks an important milestone in BAT’s transformation and will play a key role in making a smokeless future a reality.”
Meanwhile, BAT said it had more than 1,600 specialists spread across the U.K., the U.S., Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and China. “The £30 million investment in the Southampton facility follows the opening of BAT’s innovation centers in Trieste, Italy, in 2021 and in Shenzhen, China, in 2022, and an investment of £300 million a year in R&D to develop new category products and establish substantiation of their reduced risk potential,” the company said.
March 10, 2024
Massachusetts Court OKs Generational Ban

Brookline, Massachusetts (Credit: Wangkun Jia)
The highest court in Massachusetts ignored objections from vape shop owners and tobacco retailers and upheld the legality of a novel bylaw that bars cigarette sales to anyone born after January 1, 2000, in the town of Brookline. The restriction, the first of its kind in the United States, is designed to prevent future generations from using not only tobacco but also nicotine.
Retailers argued that the 2021 Brookline bylaw was pre-empted by a state law approved in 2018 that raised the minimum age for purchasing a tobacco product from 18 to 21, according to media reports. The retailers pointed out that the Brookline bylaw effectively means someone born after January 1, 2000, will not be able to purchase a nicotine product regardless of their age.
Over time, as the population ages, the bylaw will effectively ban the sale of tobacco products in the town.
In the Supreme Judicial Court’s unanimous opinion, written by Justice Dalila Wendlandt, the court acknowledged the Brookline bylaw is more restrictive than the state’s minimum age standard, but the justices had no issues with that. They said the bylaw “augments the state statute” by further limiting access to tobacco products to persons under the age of 21.
The court rejected claims by the tobacco retailers that the state law was designed to clarify what had become a muddled regulatory environment as municipality after municipality raised the minimum age for buying tobacco products.
“The retailers claim that the purpose of the Tobacco Act was ‘actually to benefit tobacco retailers . . . by eliminating the confusion that arises when the minimum age for purchasing tobacco varies from town to town and city to city across the Commonwealth,’” the opinion said. “To the contrary, the act reflects the legislative intent to protect young persons and other vulnerable populations from the deleterious health effects of tobacco product use.”
The case drew attention in Massachusetts and around the nation and the world and the outcome is likely to prompt more communities to follow Brookline’s lead, creating a patchwork quilt of regulation of tobacco products.
March 9, 2024
Colorado Flavor Ban Bill Dies

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It happened again. For the second time in the last three sessions, a bill to regulate flavored nicotine products has died in Colorado’s General Assembly.
The proposal would have allowed a board of county commissioners to ban flavored tobacco and nicotine products. The House Business Affairs & Labor Committee defeated it on a 6-5 vote, according to Colorado Public Radio.
Several lawmakers on the committee voting against the bill cited concerns about its impacts on local businesses, echoing testimony from several vape shop owners who said it would have hurt sales if a county banned flavored vaping and other tobacco products.
“We have a long history of choosing to listen to the tobacco lobby,” said bill sponsor Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, as she appealed to her colleagues before the vote. “I hope that today we can really think about the children and make sure that we do the right thing to make sure that our children don’t have access to these products that have been targeted for them.”
The measure had already passed a Senate committee and the full Senate. As has been seen in prior years, the bill drew intense lobbying, with 141 lobbyists from both sides signing up to voice support, opposition, or neutrality, according to the state’s lobbyist disclosure website.
Tobacco companies like PMI, RJ Reynolds America, and Altria, represented by the lobbying company Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and industry groups, including the Vapor Technology Association, hired lobbyists in opposition to the legislation.
All the traditional anti-nicotine groups such as Bloomberg, Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund and Kaiser Permanente also hired lobbyists in support.
In 2022, a bill to ban flavored tobacco statewide failed after Gov. Jared Polis said the issue should be handled at the local level.
March 9, 2024
Analysts: UK Vape Tax Good for Tobacco Stock

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Citi analysts have identified the U.K. government’s new excise tax on vaping products as an encouraging development for BAT and Imperial Brands, reports Proactive.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed in his Spring Budget speech that vaping products would be subject to a new tax from October 2026. According to media reports, this move is designed to maintain a financial incentive for choosing vaping over smoking, complemented by a concurrent increase in tobacco duty.
The taxation framework will be based on nicotine content, with a three-tiered system imposing charges ranging from £1 ($1.28) per 10 mL to £3 per 10 mL in addition to the current 20 percent VAT.
This structured approach aims to regulate the vaping market further and aligns with the government’s health strategy by providing a less harmful alternative to traditional smoking.
Citi’s short research note said: “Although [Wednesday’s] confirmation of the planned levy on vaping comes as little surprise, we believe that alongside the proposed ban on disposable vapes from April 25, the regulatory risk/reward is skewing to the upside for both BAT and Imperial.”
March 8, 2024
Senators Urge End to Flavored Vape Sales

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The chairmen of five key Senate committees warned the chief executives of major convenience stores and wholesalers to stop selling illicit flavored vaping products, which they called “widespread violations of federal law,” according to The New York Times.
The senators voiced their concerns in letters to the companies, amplifying the frustration among some lawmakers in Congress over the continued availability of disposable e-cigarettes. They say the vivid colors and candy flavors only attract kids. The unchecked sales, they wrote, “pose a tremendous public health threat.”
“FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] and the industry must do more to address the youth vaping epidemic and remove unauthorized vaping products from their shelves immediately,” Senator Dick Durbin said.
The letters were addressed to retailers including 7-Eleven, Circle K, BP America, Pilot, Kwik Trip and others. The FDA had earlier issued warnings about sales of unauthorized brands like Elf Bar, E.B. Design and Funky Republic.
“Today, millions of children use unauthorized e-cigarettes, risking nicotine addiction, respiratory illness, exacerbation of depression and anxiety, and many other harms,” read the letter to Joseph DePinto, the chief executive of 7-Eleven.
The other senators who signed the letter were Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown and Richard Blumenthal.
March 8, 2024
French Continuing to Finance Tobacco: Report

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Several French banks continue to finance the tobacco industry despite promises to stop doing so, according to a report commissioned by anti-smoking group Alliance Contre le Tabac (ACT), reports RFI. In November 2023 alone, the country’s banks invested $733 million in the tobacco business. Of these investment funds, 40 percent came from the BPCE Group and more than 20 percent came from Credit Agricole.
“If the tobacco industry has succeeded in maintaining its deadly trade, it is, in part, thanks to the resources provided by banking institutions and investment funds,” said Marion Catellin, director of the ACT.
The banks pledged to stop funding tobacco companies six years ago, according to Catellin.
Australian nongovernmental organization Tobacco-Free Portfolio introduced the Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge in 2017, which called on international financial players to stop financing tobacco companies. Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and the BPCE group signed this pledge.
The ACT-commissioned report showed that these banks, between 2018 and 2023, approved loans amounting to $5.3 billion to BAT, Philip Morris International and Imperial Brands.
“These bank credits are unacceptable,” said Catellin. “As World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently stated, every investment in the tobacco industry is an investment in death and disease. By financing the tobacco industry, French banks are complicit in an industry that kills one out of every two consumers.”
“Aware of the environmental and social impacts associated with the tobacco sector, Societe Generale has committed to a strategy to exit the sector,” said the bank, which accounts for 83 percent of French financial support for the tobacco industry. Societe Generale signed a charter in September 2023 expressing plans to exit the sector.
March 7, 2024
Boost in Noncigarette Tobacco Use: U.K.

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The number of people in the U.K. who smoke pipes, shisha and cigars has increased fivefold over the past 10 years, according to The Guardian.
Based on a study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, in 2023, there were 772,800 exclusive noncigarette tobacco users compared to 151,200 in 2013. The study is based on research by University College London academics who surveyed 1,700 adults a month between 2013 and 2023 on their smoking habits.
Young adults showed the largest increase in use of noncigarette tobacco. Of the surveyed 18-year-olds, 3 percent used noncigarette tobacco while 1.1 percent of 65-year-olds used these products. Men and current vapers showed a higher prevalence of noncigarette tobacco use as well.
Experts argue that use of noncigarette tobacco can be more harmful than smoking traditional cigarettes. The British Heart Foundation has stated that smoking a shisha pipe for 20 minutes to 80 minutes amounts to the same amount of smoke inhaled from more than 100 cigarettes. The organization also stated that tobacco-free shisha still produces dangerous toxins in the smoke.
The increase in noncigarette tobacco use could be attributed to a belief that these forms of smoking are less harmful than traditional cigarettes or to financial reasons, according to the study.
“Tobacco kills one person every five minutes in the U.K.,” said Ian Walker, executive director of policy at Cancer Research U.K. “Research like this shows that the issue of smoking isn’t just about cigarettes—all tobacco products are harmful and cause cancer, no matter what form they come in.
“That’s why it’s crucial that the government’s age-of-sale legislation applies to all tobacco products. If implemented, this policy will be a vital step toward creating a smoke-free U.K., preventing future generations from ever becoming addicted to tobacco.”
“This 10-year-long study captures the shift in trends of noncigarette tobacco use and paints a concerning picture,” said Sarah Jackson, lead author of the study. “Although rates of cigarette smoking have fallen, our data show there has been a sharp rise in use of other smoked tobacco products, particularly among young people.
“It’s vital that smoking cessation services are adequately funded and available across the U.K. so that the around 772,800 people who use noncigarette tobacco products, and the millions who use cigarettes, are given the support they need to quit.”
March 7, 2024