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  • Judge Pauses FDA Menthol Ban Case to August

    Judge Pauses FDA Menthol Ban Case to August

    In a two-page order, U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam granted a request filed last week jointly by both the government defendants and the public health advocates who filed the lawsuit, seeking a stay on the proceedings until mid-August. The lawsuit filed by anti-tobacco groups seeking to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s delay to ban menthol cigarettes was paused by a federal judge in response to moves made by the Trump administration.

    Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. for the US District Court for the Northern District of California issued a stay  in the case between the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and the FDA over whether the agency lawfully delayed a Biden-era final rule that would ban menthol cigarettes from store shelves.

    Both parties in a joint submission proposed the stay on Feb. 18.

    In late January, the FDA withdrew its proposed rules to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and all characterizing flavors in cigars.

    “The recent withdrawal of both proposed federal flavor bans is compelling evidence that the Trump administration is taking a less aggressive rulemaking posture compared to the Biden administration,” Troutman Pepper Locke wrote on its Tobacco Law Blog. “The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs withdrawal filings do not detail the reasoning behind the decision. However, several comments submitted during each proposed rule’s comment period detail ample justifications for withdrawing the proposals.

    “With respect to the menthol cigarette ban, industry argued that illicit markets would proliferate, fed by consumer demand for menthol cigarettes despite the proposed prohibition.”

  • Study: Villainizing Vape is Backfiring

    Study: Villainizing Vape is Backfiring

    A study published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, conducted by Brighton and Sussex Medical School, revealed that the constant vilification of all nicotine products so users will stop smoking and using “tobacco products” altogether appears to be backfiring. The study said that while many smokers are looking for less harmful alternatives, “inappropriate misinformation” about products such as e-cigarettes is keeping them from switching.

    In the findings, 85% of the smokers in England, where the study was conducted, had an incorrect understanding of vaping’s risks. Whereas vaping is not risk-free, it is less harmful than traditional smoking, yet some believe it’s as much or even more harmful as combustible cigarettes.

    “This misunderstanding is a big obstacle in the path of quitting cigarettes,” wrote the Hindustan Times. “They don’t see vaping, as a viable alternative to cigarettes.

    “To overcome any addictive habit or even go to the milder alternatives to gradually quit the habit, a strong motivation is required. With the widespread misunderstanding, smokers don’t feel motivated enough to switch. As per them if it’s as bad as traditional smoking, they see little point in making the switch.”

  • Turning Point to Host FY24 Conference Call

    Turning Point to Host FY24 Conference Call

    Turning Point Brands, Inc. announced that it will review its fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2024 results via a conference call on Thursday, March 6, 2025, at 10 a.m. EST.

    Those interested should call 10 minutes before the event begins and follow the prompts to register. The dial-in numbers are 800-715-9871 (U.S., toll-free) and 646-307-1963 (international). The event ID is 6640134.

    The call will also be broadcast live as a listen-only webcast from the investor relations section of the company’s website. The replay of the webcast will be available on the site two hours following the call.

  • Zimbabwe Growers Encouraged to Prioritize Quality

    Zimbabwe Growers Encouraged to Prioritize Quality

    Predicting a significant increase in global flavor-grade tobacco supply for 2025, Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) is urging growers to focus on quality by investing in an energy-efficient curing infrastructure, adopting precision farming techniques, and implementing improved agronomic practices.

    For the 2025 season, Zimbabwe saw a 2.75% increase in hectares planted, which combined with improved rainfall distribution and better agronomic practices, puts the projected national output between 280 million and 300 million kg depending on the weather. Last year’s output of 231.7 million kg of flue-cured Virginia tobacco was a 13.1% increase from 2023.

    The anticipated increase in Zimbabwe combined with projections that Brazil’s output will increase from 461.8 million kg in 2024 to at least 650 million kg in 2025 has experts predicting downward pressure on tobacco prices, particularly for middle to low-end grades.

    Tapiwa Masedza, the factory coordinator for the Tian Ze Tobacco Company, said the global demand for tobacco remains robust, with many companies struggling to meet supply orders due to last year’s reduced crop size. That combined with China’s need for top-end grades gives hope that prices will remain stable for premium leaf, however low- to medium-end grades prices are expected to drop.

    “While the anticipated increase in production is a testament to the sector’s resilience and growth, the potential price pressures underscore the need for strategic planning and investment in quality improvement,” Masedza said. “Mixing grades in bales, excessive moisture, and moldy tobacco can lead to discounts or rejections, ultimately affecting profitability.”

    TIMB is trying to help insulate local farmers from potential subdued prices resulting from excess supply with a new pricing system, expected to be implemented April 5. The system will determine the following day’s minimum price based on the average price of all tobacco sold — both at auction and through contracts — across all grades.

  • Croatian Smokers, Tobacco Growers on the Rise

    Croatian Smokers, Tobacco Growers on the Rise

    According to a study, 37% of people in Croatia used tobacco products last month, an increase of 4% from two years ago. Of those users, 74% smoked cigarettes, a 6% increase from 2023. The study was carried out by JA Trgovac magazine and Hendal, a respected global market research agency.

    Tobacco use, however, is creating a boon for the country. The research indicated that 20% of the users were spending upward of €4.50 per day on the taxed products. In addition, Hrvatski Duhani, a BAT subsidiary located in Virovitica, reported buying more than 4,500 tons of tobacco from 250 local growers last year for more than €20 million, an increase of 41% from two years earlier. 

  • Farmers Encouraged to Focus on Quality

    Farmers Encouraged to Focus on Quality

    Tobacco farmers in Zimbabwe have been encouraged to prioritize crop quality in order to combat expected price decreases, according to The Herald.

    The 2025 tobacco marketing season is expected to see an increase in production due to favorable weather conditions, expanded hectarage, and an increase in farmers. However, the anticipated increase in supply along with other global market dynamics are expected to put downward pressure on prices, especially for middle-grade to low-grade leaf.

    “China, the world’s largest tobacco producer and consumer, continues to show strong demand for top-end grades, which may help stabilize prices for high-quality tobacco,” said Tapiwa Masedza, a tobacco trading expert.

    “While the increased production is a positive development, farmers must brace for potential price declines,” Masedza said. “To mitigate these challenges, we emphasize the importance of improving crop quality through better handling, curing, and presentation. Mixing grades in bales, excessive moisture, and moldy tobacco can lead to discounts or rejections, ultimately affecting profitability.

    “In the long term, farmers are encouraged to invest in energy-efficient curing infrastructure, adopt precision farming techniques, and implement improved agronomic practices.

    “These measures can help reduce operating costs, enhance yield, and ensure better returns despite fluctuating prices.”

    The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board is developing a new price matrix for contract tobacco sales in order to establish a more representative minimum price for the marketing season. The new system is expected to be implemented in the upcoming selling season beginning April 5.

    Under the new system, the day’s minimum price will be based on the previous day’s average price of all tobacco sold, at auction and through contract, across all grades.

    Tobacco is Zimbabwe’s largest single foreign currency earner following gold.

  • Smoking Increases in Croatia

    Smoking Increases in Croatia

    The number of smokers in Croatia is increasing, according to Croatia Week, citing a study from January 2025 carried out by JA Trgovac magazine and Hendal, a global market research agency.

    The study showed that 37 percent of people used tobacco products in January of this year, four percentage points higher than the previous year. In two years, the number of tobacco users has increased by 12 percent.

    Of all tobacco users, 74 percent smoke cigarettes, an increase of 6 percent from January 2023.

    Hrvatski Duhani, a BAT-owned company, purchased more than 4,500 tonnes of tobacco last year from 250 growers in the Podravina and Slavonia regions, marking a 41 percent increase from 2023. According to Hrvatski Duhani, the company paid tobacco producers more than €20 million last year.

  • NY AG Files Lawsuit Against 12 Vape Companies

    NY AG Files Lawsuit Against 12 Vape Companies

    New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a lawsuit against 12 e-cigarette manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for “their role in fueling the youth vaping epidemic.” Those named in the lawsuit are Puff Bar, MYLE Vape, Pod Juice, Mi-One Brands, Happy Distro, Demand Vape, EVO Brands, PVG2, Magellan Technology, Midwest Goods, Safa Goods, and Price Point Distributors, as well as Price Point principals Weis Khwaja, Hamza Jalili, and Mohammad Jalili.

    “These companies are responsible for illegally distributing, marketing, and selling flavored disposable vapes, which have become extraordinarily popular among minors,” James said in a statement. “The vaping industry is taking a page out of Big Tobacco’s playbook: they’re making nicotine seem cool, getting kids hooked, and creating a massive public health crisis in the process.”

    In 2020, New York banned the sale of flavored vapor products, however, the products exploded in popularity globally in the past decade and are readily available at numerous outlets. The lawsuit seeks a “disgorgement of all revenues earned as a result of illegal activity” which would translate to hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as a permanent ban on flavored vapes in New York.

    “This punitive approach undermines American entrepreneurship and ignores the public health benefits of vaping as a smoking cessation tool,” Allison Boughner, the vice president of American Vapor Manufacturers, a trade group that represents vape makers and retailers, said in a statement. “This misguided action unfairly targets legitimate American businesses that employ thousands and contribute to local economies. Our members are dedicated to offering adult smokers safer alternatives to combustible cigarettes, supporting a mission of harm reduction backed by science and millions of successful former smokers.”

    Matthew Glauser, the chief strategy officer and a co-founder of Demand Vape, one of the companies named in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the suit was “wasting New York taxpayers’ money and federal court time, which desperately need to be focused on substantive issues that truly impact our communities.”

    According to the New York Times, Tony Abboud, the executive director of another industry group, Vapor Technology Association, disputed the suit’s claim that there was a youth vaping epidemic and called on President Trump “to take bold and decisive action to end the government lawfare against the flavored vaping industry.”

  • PMI Execs Speak at CAGNY

    PMI Execs Speak at CAGNY

    Yesterday, Philip Morris International participated in the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference in Orlando, Florida. Chief Executive Officer Jacek Olczak and Chief Financial Officer Emmanuel Babeau spoke about the company’s work toward a smoke-free future, current financial models, and future opportunities.

    (Some quotes were edited for brevity and clarity.) Highlights included:

    Jacek Olczak

    Working toward a smoke-free company

    “We have been quite successful for the first 10 years of the transformations and our quest to become predominantly a smoke-free company. A way to look at what we achieved is [comparing] Marlboro International, which is by far the biggest premium brand in the category. Two years ago in 2023, IQOS for the first time surpassed the revenues of Marlboro and last year exceeded $11 billion. If we take this from that perspective, it took Philip Morris International about 60 or 70 years to get Marlboro to that level, and IQOS, our heat-not-burn brand, has managed to get to that level of performance in roughly 10 years.”

    “What does it mean for us when we set this aspirational target of having two-thirds of our revenue come from smoke-free products by 2030? Obviously, it’s a nice number that looks very nice on a PowerPoint, but the reality is that unless we become a majority smoke-free company, country-by-country, market-by-market, while we operate… the miracle will not happen at the group consolidated level.”

    “There are some countries in the world that despite the science and knowledge and evidence about the new products in terms of the risk profile versus cigarettes, they will not ban cigarettes. But they [essentially] will ban the smoke-free product by allowing cigarettes to continue.”

    ZYN, the company’s acclaimed oral nicotine pouch

    “ZYN in the U.S. is essentially approaching $2 billion in revenues. However, it’s especially exciting for us that ZYN today is the No. 4 nicotine brand as of last quarter, and definitely is the No. 1 smoke-free brand on the U.S. market.”

    Nicotine and the FDA

    “The FDA and others should finally start clarifying what is nicotine. Maybe we don’t wait for FDA clarification. This is what we say about nicotine, and I am not saying what we know, we are just repeating what is known to the public health organizations including the FDA and many other reputable institutions: Nicotine is addictive and, obviously, is not risk-free, but it’s not the primary cause of smoking-related diseases.”

    “Everything else that you find in tobacco smoke is bad, but it’s not the nicotine. Now historically, because we only knew that nicotine can be consumed from cigarettes, nobody had to pay attention to the details or accuracy of the language and whether you call it nicotine or cigarette or smoking, there was not much difference. But over the last 10 years, this has become the fundamental difference.”

    “The most important thing, and I will be repeating this until we succeed, nicotine doesn’t cause cancer. And this is not PMI research. This is research that was done over the last 60 or 70 years when any public authority in the world was looking into cigarettes and the harm caused by cigarettes. And nobody has come up with any conclusion even close that nicotine causes harm and definitively not causes cancer. So that’s the starting point and the industry, and definitely PMI, is going in that direction.”

    “[Nicotine products] have no reason to be given to kids. So we, and Swedish Match, stand very strongly behind responsible sales practices, which go into the product design flavors, et cetera.”

    Future of the industry

    “I think the future will be more complicated, but it will actually create more opportunities. The smokers will not go away. They’re actually looking at these products from the repertoire perspective, because all of these products deliver a different opportunity.”

    “I think the best strategy one can have is to actually keep on with the pace of developing these products and offering them to the consumers without spending too much time [wondering which] one category will win one versus the others.”

    Emmanuel Babeau

    Revenue growth

    “Let me start with a summary of our best-in-class growth and return. The first element is we are a strong growth company in terms of top-line with three drivers. The first one we talk about is growing volumes. If we achieve our objective of growing volume again in 2025, it will be five years in a row of growth in volume. It’s a total change of paradigm for the nicotine industry. Second is price increase, and you have seen over the last two years we’ve been growing and increasing our prices. First on combustible of course, but also on the smoke-free portfolio where we have started to post some nice price increases. Third is the very positive mixed impact that is coming from the growth of our smoke-free portfolio.”

    “What I think is super important is the mix impact and understanding of why the growth on smoke-free products is a very positive element for our growth, both at the top-line level and at the margin progression as well.”

    “Today we are spending a lot of time on AI and what AI can mean for us in terms of notably saving on our back-office cost. We believe that AI is pervasive to the organization. To be clear, AI will have a lot of impact in the way we connect with the consumer and in the way we develop our marketing activity. It’s also going to have a very positive impact on cost, in terms of standardization, in terms of automatization, and we’re going to leverage that.”

    Smoke-free products

    “Look at IQOS versus combustible cigarettes. IQOS reaches $80 per thousand in revenue, which is around 2.2 times higher than the average of our combustible portfolio. Therefore, when we grow IQOS, not only do we come with volume growth, but we accelerate the revenue growth with this positive mix effect on revenue. The level of gross profit is $54 per thousand. This is around 2.4 times higher than a combustible cigarette.”

    “Maybe the most spectacular impact in terms of positive contribution is the U.S. ZYN number. The revenue per thousand is about 6 times the average of our cigarette business. And at this level, the gross profit is $185, which is about 8 times the profit that we make on average for our combustible business.”

    “So obviously, when we grow IQOS and ZYN, we are growing very nicely in volume, remember close to 14% growth in volume for our smoke-free portfolio in 2024.”

    For more than 50 years, CAGNY has been connecting investors, management teams, and the media dedicated to the consumer industry. It asserts to be “the largest not-for-profit of its kind” and hosts various events throughout the year, highlighted by the CAGNY conference in Boca Raton, Florida.

  • Kingsmakers Partners with Carmelo Anthony

    Kingsmakers Partners with Carmelo Anthony

    Kingmakers Cigars announced the upcoming release of Versa, a premium cigar said to embody passion, excellence, and resilience. In its latest celebrity collaboration, the company is partnering with 10-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony as the face of it.

    The name comes from the Latin word Versatilis, which stands for adaptability and strength. The cigar has a “complex yet smooth flavor profile that caters to both seasoned aficionados and newcomers.”

    According to Kingmakers, “the blend is comprised of a Habano 2000 wrapper, a Sumatra binder, and filler tobacco from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania. This medium-to-full-bodied smoke starts with notes of black pepper and spicy chili before transitioning to creamy undertones and nut and espresso notes. The cigar finishes with notes of dark chocolate, molasses, roasted almonds, and deep, leathery, and earthy notes. The finish also has subtle hints of dried fruits and black coffee, making for a memorable smoking experience.”

    Versa will be available March 31, 2025, and is currently available for pre-sale.