Category: Featured

China Announces Cigar Festival in Chengdu

Photo: Chris Frenzel | Pixabay
The 2021 International Cigar Expo (ICE) will take place at the Tianfu International Convention Center in Chengdu, Nov. 8–10, 2021. The event will be hosted by China Cigarette Sales Corp. and China Tobacco International Group.
The organizers include China Tobacco Sichuan Industrial Co., China Tobacco Anhui, Shandong, Hubei Industrials Co., China Tobacco Hubei, Hainan, Sichuan, Yunnan provincial companies, and Shenzhen Tobacco Import and Export Co.
The ICE will focus on premium cigars and related products and boasts an exhibition area of more 10,000 square meters. In addition to the cigar night welcome party and the cigar industry development forum, there will be professional seminars and cigar tastings, among other events. A virtual exhibition platform will demonstrate cigar applications using virtual reality and big data, among other technologies.
The organizers expect more than 10,000 participants. Prominent brands, including Habanos, Davidoff, Bulldog and Scandinavian Tobacco Group, have already confirmed their presence, according to the ICE.
Chengdu is one of the largest cigar markets in China, with a solid industrial base and huge potential for the cigar industry. Moreover, Sichuan Province boasts the largest cigar production base in Asia and is a prominent producer of premium air-cured tobacco.
For more information, visit www.intercigarexpo.com.
May 13, 2021
Altria Elects Kathryn McQuade as Board Chair

Photo: Jakub Jirsák | Dreamstime.com
Altria Group’s board of directors has elected Kathryn B. McQuade to serve as the independent chair of the board effective upon the conclusion of Altria’s 2021 annual meeting of shareholders on May 20, 2021.
“I am thrilled with Kathryn’s selection to be Altria’s next independent board chair,” said Billy Gifford, Altria’s CEO, in a statement. “I believe that her significant expertise, including in finance, business strategy and working within regulated industries, will help advance our focus on moving beyond smoking.”
McQuade, who joined the board in 2012, will be the first woman to serve as Altria’s chair of the board and will oversee a board on which more than 72 percent of its members are women or racially or ethnically diverse.
“I am honored to take on the role of independent board chair for Altria,” said McQuade. “I look forward to continuing to work with the board and Altria’s dedicated leadership team in pursuit of its vision.”
McQuade served as senior advisor of Canadian Pacific Railway, a transcontinental railway in Canada and the United States, from November 2012 to May 2013, after previously serving as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Canadian Pacific from September 2008 until her retirement in November 2012.
McQuade joined Canadian Pacific in June 2007 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Prior to joining Canadian Pacific, McQuade served as executive vice president-planning and chief information officer at Norfolk Southern Corp. where she spent 27 years in key information technology, strategic planning and finance leadership positions.
McQuade serves as chair of the nominating, corporate governance and social responsibility committee and is a member of the audit, compensation and talent development and executive committees.
Altria’s former independent board chairman, Thomas F. Farrell II, passed away in April 2021. He had planned to retire following completion of his current term and was not standing for reelection to the board at the 2021 annual meeting of shareholders.
May 12, 2021
Zimbabwe Campaigning Against Rogue Buyers

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) in Zimbabwe has begun a campaign to expose middlemen in the illegal tobacco trade.
These middlemen are said to be traveling to farms where they are offering low prices for tobacco in return for instant payments. According to NewsDay, the middlemen have been working with officers at the tobacco auction floors to sell the leaf at huge margins.
Most of Zimbabwe’s tobacco is produced by small-scale communal farmers who are poorly funded. Ninety-five percent of the tobacco sold through “side marketing” would have been grown under contract with registered financiers.
“We are quite happy about this initiative by TIMB,” said Shadreck Makombe, president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union. “As we do away with side marketing, we are bringing in business ethics. We are now conducting business on professional grounds, which is a good development. Even investors will start to have confidence when they want to invest their money. They know that it is secure.”
“This initiative is noble,” he said. “We are encouraging farmers not to be enticed by unscrupulous buyers. If they continuously get arrested and sanctioned in such a manner, side marketing can be limited and probably completely eliminated.”
“For the 2021 tobacco marketing season, the TIMB has embarked on an exercise to name and shame illegal buyers and sellers of tobacco,” said Chelesani Moyo, TIMB spokesperson. “The aim of this exercise is to discourage repeat offending and deter would-be illegal buyers and sellers. So far, 85 illegal buyers and sellers have been fined.”
May 11, 2021
Kim Reed to Lead ITG Brands

Photo: ITG Brands
ITG Brands has named Kim Reed president and CEO effective June 1. As president and CEO, Reed will oversee all U.S. employees and operations, reporting to Dominic Brisby, division director for the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australasia for Imperial Brands. Reed will succeed Oliver Kutz, who will assume the role of cluster general manager for Central Europe and Ukraine for Imperial Brands as part of a planned transition.
“I would like to thank Oliver for his leadership in recent years and am thrilled to announce that Kim Reed will serve as the next president and CEO of ITG Brands. Kim has a wealth of experience in the consumer goods sector and a demonstrated record of success in both sales and executive leadership,” said Brisby in a statement. “Kim has expertly led the largest sales transformation in ITG Brands’ history and is the perfect steward for the continued success of Imperial’s largest market.”
Reed has served as a member of the ITG Brands leadership team for two years in her capacity as executive vice president of sales. According to ITG Brands, Reed has consistently delivered exceptional results during her tenure, including establishing ITG Brands as a market leader in sales of factory manufactured cigarettes and mass market cigars while leading a sales organization of more than 1,000 employees responsible for $3 billion in net revenue.
Reed designed and oversaw a comprehensive sales transformation strategy that encompassed ITG Brands’ largest-ever external recruitment for field sales while prioritizing a diverse and inclusive culture.
“I am honored to accept the role of chief executive officer of ITG Brands,” said Reed.
“I want to thank Oliver for his leadership and his partnership in creating such a fantastic and talented team. I am excited to engage across all aspects of the business and build upon our existing momentum to further accelerate growth.”

Oliver Kutz
Prior to joining ITG Brands, Reed led several large sales organizations for major consumer brands. She held various positions at the Kellogg Co., culminating in a role as general manager of U.S. sales, and served in numerous roles at the Pepsi Bottling Group over the course of over 17 years. Reed also serves as the chair of the Manufacturer’s Convenience Distributor Association and a member of the executive leadership council and previously served as a member of the board of CALIBR. She has been recognized as a 2021 top woman in convenience by Convenience Store News and twice as a top woman executive by Progressive Grocer.
May 11, 2021
Better Conditions Urged for Bidi Rollers

Photo: Brandy Brinson
Labor advocates want to improve the pay and working conditions of India’s bidi cigarette rollers, reports DW.
Bidis are often hand-rolled by women in India as a way to make ends meet, but they are paid low wages—as low as INR100 ($1.35) per 1,000 bidis. According to activists, they also face health hazards, as breathing in the chemicals used in bidis can cause serious health issues, such as back pain, infertility and blindness.
Children of bidi rollers also often become ill as they sit with their mothers while they work, inhaling the dangerous chemicals.
Bidi workers in India are entitled to a state subsidy of INR20,000 ($272.78), but many women are unaware of this benefit.
During the coronavirus-related lockdowns and closures, many girls turned to bidi rolling. This may change, however, according to Niharul Islam, a local activist and poet, if the government continues schemes to improve the livelihood of young women.
“Under the ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa’ scheme, girls receive an annual scholarship and a one-time grant of 25,000 Indian rupees,” he said. “This has motivated many parents to keep their girls in school and not push them into the dangerous profession of bidi rolling.”
May 10, 2021
Myst Labs Raises New Capital

Chenyue Xing (Photo: Myst Labs)
Myst Labs, a Chinese e-cigarette maker co-founded in 2019 by Chenyue Xing, a chemist who was part of the Juul Labs team that invented nicotine salts, recently raised “tens of thousands of dollars” in funding, reports TechCruch.
The news comes after Chinese policymakers published draft rules that would bring e-cigarettes under the same regulatory scope as traditional tobacco.
Such rules are likely to lead to a shakeout in China’s vapor business, leaving the industry in the hands of a few players with the resources to comply.
According to Myst Head of Marketing Fang Wang, the prospect of regulations has sparked interest among institutional investors who previously avoided the vapor sector.
The company’s recent funding round was led by Myst Labs’ existing investor, IMO Ventures. Myst declined to list its other investors but said they include high-profile individuals involved in the e-bike sharing company Lime, Facebook and the bitcoin industry.
Most of Myst’s current sales are in China, where it has opened 600 stores and plans to reach a footprint of 1,000 stores in the next quarters. Overseas, the startup has a retail footprint in Malaysia, Russia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The new funding will allow Myst to further expand its sales network and strengthen its research and development. The company prides itself on its product containing 1.7 percent nicotine, which it claims can deliver the effect of a 3 percent counterpart. Xing is currently working on e-liquids with “natural tobacco contents” and without organic acids, additives that allow nicotine salts to vaporize and be absorbed.
While a small player compared to market leader RLX Technology, which went public in New York earlier this year and has submitted a premarket tobacco product application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell in the U.S., Myst is growing quickly.
Co-founder Thomas Yao says the company’s recent sales have been tripling every three months.
According to a 2019 article by Bloomberg, Xing grew up in Shanghai and moved to the U.S. to study. She got a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of California, Davis, and worked at U.S. biotech and pharmaceutical companies, specializing in orally inhaled drugs for diseases like asthma. She joined Juul to help people stop smoking but left when the parent company expanded its focus to offer marijuana vaporizers.
Xing started Myst this year with Yao, who is also a founding partner at IMO Ventures. The firm was an early investor Lime scooters and Paytm digital wallets, among other ventures.
Myst’s employees are split between Silicon Valley, where scientists work on research, and Shenzhen, China, where the manufacturing and marketing staffs make and sell the devices.
May 9, 2021
Smuggling Investigation Yields €1 Million Cash

Photo: Europol
An international law enforcement operation coordinated by Europol and Eurojust with the involvement of three countries has resulted in the arrest of 12 suspects, including the masterminds, belonging to a Russian-speaking organized crime group involved in the illegal cigarette trade. The arrests took place in Belgium and France and included the leaders of the criminal organization.
Between May 4 and May 5, some 28 premises belonging to the crime gang were searched in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, according to a Europol press note. The investigators seized more than €1 million in cash alongside 11 vehicles and hundreds of counterfeit cigarette cartridges. The necessary supplies to make 1.8 million cigarette packages were also discovered at one of the searched locations. Two of the individuals arrested in Belgium are awaiting surrender to the French authorities under a European arrest warrant.
This international sweep followed a complex investigation initiated in July 2020 by the Belgian Federal Judicial Police of Leuven in close cooperation with Belgian Customs, the French Gendarmerie, French Judicial Customs, and the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service, with international activities coordinated by Europol and Eurojust. This operation was carried out in the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats
The criminal syndicate, composed mainly of Chechen nationals, was involved in the large-scale production and distribution of counterfeit cigarettes. It is believed that this organized crime group is responsible for the distribution of at least 100 million cigarettes since the autumn of 2020, with an estimated value of more than €45 million.
The counterfeit cigarettes were stored in warehouses in Tienen, Belgium, before being subsequently distributed among buyers from France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
May 9, 2021
Growth Expected in Folding Carton Market

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The folding carton market in North America is expected to grow by $2.68 billion, registering a compound annual growth rate of about 5 percent during 2021–2025, according to a new Technavio report.
The rise in the number of Covid-19 cases led to the shutdown of several manufacturing units, including the manufacturing plants of folding cartons in North America. Also, the disruptions in the supply chain caused by the pandemic limited the availability of raw materials and workforce in the market. However, the increasing demand from the healthcare and food and beverages industries for packaging and transporting a wide range of products is expected to reduce the impact caused by the pandemic on the market in 2021.
The market is expected to be driven by factors such as the increasing use of eco-friendly materials in packaging, the emergence of specialized folding cartons and the growth in the retail segment and e-commerce in North America.

May 7, 2021
No PMI Cigarettes in Japan Within 10 Years

Photo: beeboys
Philip Morris International (PMI) plans to stop selling cigarettes in Japan within 10 years.
In an interview with Nikkei, Jacek Olczak, who took over as the company’s CEO on May 5, predicted that Japan will become a smoke-free society within 10 years. PMI expects to gradually pull out of combustible tobacco products elsewhere over the next 10 to 15 years, and Olczak said he wants the transition to happen first in Japan.
According to Olczak, the company will be focusing on its heat-not-burn (HnB) products instead. In 2016, PMI began selling its IQOS HnB device nationwide in Japan. The company held a 70 percent share of Japan’s market for such products in 2019, according to Euromonitor International—far ahead of its rivals Japan Tobacco, with 10 percent, and British American Tobacco, with 20 percent.
Smokeless tobacco, which includes HnB and e-cigarettes, made up 11 percent of Philip Morris’ total shipments of 704.6 billion cigarettes in 2020, up 3 percentage points from 2019. The global market for combustible cigarettes has shrunk by just under 10 percent over the past four years.
Smokeless tobacco products are currently sold in 66 countries and regions, and Olczak said he wants to increase that to 100 percent by 2025.
Nearly 30 percent of all Japanese tobacco sales are now heated products. Part of their success is due to the country’s ban on e-cigarettes sales and its comparatively accommodative regulatory framework.
When Japan last year prohibited smoking in restaurants, it made an exception for HnB products, which can be consumed while eating or drinking if certain conditions are met, such as having ventilation equipment in place.
In 2019, tobacco companies sold 118.1 billion cigarettes in Japan, around one-third of the peak in 1996.

Jacek Olczak
Olczak said Philip Morris would introduce devices that use new technologies and consider expanding the functionality of heated devices. In addition to providing an age verification function to prevent minors from smoking, the company will also begin developing an application to help smokers manage their health.
Philip Morris’ sales for the fiscal year ended December 2020 totaled $28.6 billion, down 4 percent from the previous year, while its net profit reached $8 billion, up 12 percent.
May 7, 2021
Dutch Investigate PMI Over Smoke-Free ‘Ad’

Photo: Arkadiusz Fajer
The Dutch food safety body NVWA is investigating a campaign by Philip Morris International (PMI) to promote smoke-free alternatives, reports DutchNews.
PMI has launched a new website for the products and promoted it with a page advert in the Telegraaf at the weekend. In that advert, the company said Dutch smokers have the right to information about smoke-free alternatives.
While not mentioning the products by name, the advertisement does include the company’s brand name. Advertising tobacco products is illegal in the Netherlands.
The NVWA investigation follows complaints by anti-smoking groups. If found to have broken the ban, PMI could be fined up to €450,000 ($546,010).
May 7, 2021