BAT Korea eyes premium cigarette market in Korea

British American Tobacco Korea is striving to shore up its presence in the Korean market with premium cigarette products.

The Korean unit of the global manufacturer has been diversifying its portfolio of pricey Sobranie cigarettes with Dunhill and Kent cigarettes brands in a bid to boost profits amid stagnant population growth and rising health concerns.

Although surging prices of tobacco leaves and labor costs led BAT to hike prices of some products by 200 won (19 cents) in April, Korea’s cigarettes largely remain below 3,000 won a pack, one of the lowest among OECD nations.

“BAT is thought to have suffered profitability deterioration, as ex-factory prices have frozen for nine years. The country’s cigarette prices are relatively low in light of its income level,” Baek Woon-mok, an analyst at Daewoo Securities, said in a report.

But the segment of multinational premium cigarettes ― including Dunhill, Kent and Philip Morris International Inc.’s Marlboro and Parliament ― has gradually expanded over the past several years, threatening the dominance of KT&G Corp., according to Euromonitor International.

“Korean consumers became increasingly partial to multinational brands, due to the quality of the tobacco used, as well as their premium packaging,” the London-based research firm said in a report.

“Furthermore, the resistance to imported products, which was previously commonplace in Korea, continued to diminish particularly amongst younger consumers.”

Since its inroads in 1990, BAT has emerged as the No. 2 seller in the world’s eighth-largest tobacco market. It set up a factory in 2002 in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, by injecting around $100 million.

To jack up its 16 percent stake, the company unveiled its capsule filter technology and new packaging last year.

Kent Convertible and Kent Boost give customers an extra burst of menthol when they pop a small ball in the filter.

Kent Convertible, the first of its kind here, took up more than 1 percent within three months after its launch in July 2010, industry figures showed.

“Kent is the second-largest premium brand globally ― outside of the U.S. and China ― sold in over 80 countries,” Guy Meldrum, marketing executive director of BAT Korea, said early this year. “Kent stands for innovation and technology.”

For its Dunhill lineup, BAT churned out a series of new products such as Switch, Nanocut and Fine Cut, and renewed packaging for traditional Dunhill with “Reloc” technology.

The patented inner wrapping method entails a re-sealable double cover to ensure extra freshness for the tobacco.

“Dunhill has been an icon of premium brand in the market,” said chief executive Stephan Liechti. “Dunhill will continue to be a premium leader, keeping the same taste and quality with the premium seal Reloc.”

According to BAT, the premium tobacco sector logged double-digit growth last year and the trend is expected to continue in the coming years.

Another target segment is ultraslim cigarettes.

Dunhill Nanocut and Fine Cut are aimed at biting into the booming market enjoyed by KT&G’s Esse.

“Superslims are a global trend and have been the key design innovation of the last five years, with particular appeal to female smokers but also ‘cross-over’ appeal in a number of markets such as Korea where men have been receptive to the style,” Euromonitor said.

Huge haul of cigarettes stolen from lorry driver in Northampton

A lorry driver was robbed of thousands of cigarettes during a delivery to a Northampton supermarket.
The driver was making the delivery at Londis in Park Square, Kings Heath, at around 6.20am yesterday when he was approached by two men wearing black who demanded the cigarettes.
In total they took 89 boxes - about 18,000 cigarettes - before making off in a grey Audi 80 which was later found in the car park of Paget House, Kings Heath.
A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire Police said: "We would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed this incident or who may have any information regarding it.
"Both offenders were men, about 5ft10in and wore black clothing, including masks covering their faces. One was of stocky build and the other slightly thinner."

Capitol Hill tries to eliminate cigarette butts

Cigarette butts — the most-littered item in America — will soon become more scarce in the Capitol Hill area.

For the first time, the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District linked up with the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program to help clear out tossed-away cigarettes left behind by smokers.

Three high-traffic areas on Capitol Hill were picked: the southeast corner of Eighth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE; on First Street SE in front of Bullfeathers and Tortilla Coast; and on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue between Third and Fourth streets SE.

In 2008, nearly 200 communities reported an average 46 percent reduction in littered butts as a result of implementing the program.

"Cigarette litter is not only unsightly and costly to clean up, but also harmful to waterways and wildlife. Simple actions like installing ash receptacles and distributing pocket ashtrays will make a big difference in decreasing litter and ultimately keeping Capitol Hill beautiful," said Patty Brosmer, BID president.

The nonprofit Keep America Beautiful has field-tested and expanded the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program for the last six years with support from Philip Morris USA, an Altria company.

Looking For Ways To Quit Smoking

With the right information in hand you can quit smoking and be smoke free forever. Each time I tried to quit cigarettes it took an unbelievable amount of drive on my part. In all the attempts that I had made before it did teach me what I needed to know next time I tried to stop smoking. If you should fail on your first attempts, you can at least slow down on the amounts of cigs you do have. When you do stop smoking it will be one of the best things you can do to promote your well-being. Sometimes health providers provide workshops to help in quitting smoking, so seek them out. Having a plan of attack will help to control your desire to smoke. Don't let yourself believe it's to hard too stop smoking.

I joined one of those stop smoking support groups the last attempt I made in quitting smoking. The rationality of doing this was it was just torture to time and time again quit smoking. That was going to be the last time I quit this habit. Support that is structured and personalized can be long lasting in helping you. The journey from this type of psychological ride can be so overwhelming. If you are in the know with advice from a support group, you can face what's coming. There is nothing here that is ground breaking at all. The stress of starting and stopping smoking is too much. Your mind will even come up with reasons to have a cigarette. Having a few tricks up your shelve can help not to have that cig.

Make sure you have equipped yourself with the knowledge you need on the smoke and how it affects you. Modify your behavior; hanging out with your former smokers will just pull your trigger to start smoking again. Tobacco is a drug of dependence, treat it as such. Confront the situation of wanting to smoke a cigarette and be prepared to stop yourself, easy quit smoking tip.

To quit cold turkey was an illusion out of my reach smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. It may be the most well known method to quit smoking and the oldest. If I would have quit cold turkey, I would have been climbing the walls without a plan to act on doing the cold turkey idea.

As difficult as it would be to try to quit smoking I would also use products to help with my withdraw symptoms to help with the smoking cravings. The use of a nicotine patch or nicotine gum is known to helping people be less likely to start smoking again. If you should mess up by having a few cigarettes do not despair, just start over. Let's not dwell on meshing up and quitting your no smoking efforts.

Start by making a promise to yourself, that you are going to find a way to quit smoking, it starts with a plan. When you start you will be very uncomfortable at first. Family can help with your stress. Smokers fail in there first attempts all the time, just start again.

Some smoking aids do contain nicotine; other products are coming on the market all the time that do not contain nicotine. Doctors may use drugs like bupropion, chantix and fluoxetine. Chantix is pfizer's drug, fluoxetine may be for depression in smokers and there is nicotine free bupropion. Doctors will use what works best.

What happens when you quit smoking is withdraw symptoms from quitting smoking can vary from feeling fatigue or suffering from irritability and feeling like you are coming down with a cold or something. In the first 48 hours is when these will be the strongest. Temporary is what this is, do not forget. Knowledge is what you need to stay in control of your mind when this is happening to your body which will go away.

If you where not buying cigarettes for a year think about how much money that would be, is that enough of an incentive for you? Buy yourself something special after that. You will be one of the non smokers with negative attitude at the smokers outside. No more standing 15 feet away from the entrance to the building. Bring on the anti-smoking laws and more taxes on cigarettes; I don't have to pay anymore.

The Facts About Cigarette Smoking

Nearly 50 million Americans smoke, resulting in nearly 450,000 deaths each year. The smoke from cigarettes alone contains over 4,000 different chemicals

The Facts About Cigarette Smoking

Nearly 50 million Americans smoke, resulting in nearly 450,000 deaths each year. The smoke from cigarettes alone contains over 4,000 different chemicals, including 200 known poisons. Cigarettes are also highly addictive; one-third of the young people who "experiment" end up addicted by the time they turn 20.

Even though many people smoke because they believe cigarettes calm their nerves, smoking releases epinephrine, a hormone that creates physiological stress in the smoker, rather than relaxation. Not only are smokers affected by their habit, but second-hand smoke is also responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually of non-smokers in the United States.

There are numerous negative side effects associated with smoking cigarettes; they include the loss of the sense of smell and taste, emphysema, premature and overabundant face wrinkles, gastric ulcers, smoker's cough, stroke, heart disease, and cancer of the mouth, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, lungs, pancreas, cervix, uterus, and bladder.

Smokers become physically and psychologically dependent, suffering numerous withdrawal symptoms when they attempt to quit. These symptoms include: changes in body temperature, heart rate, digestion, muscle tone, and appetite, irritability, anxiety, sleep disturbances, nervousness, headaches, fatigue, nausea, and cravings for tobacco that can last days, weeks, months, years, or even an entire lifetime.

Cigarette smoking is perhaps the most devastating preventable cause of disease and premature death. Adolescent cigarette smokers are more likely to smoke marijuana and are more likely to use other illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin in the future.

E-Cigarette Consumers May Take an FDA Ban Personally

GAINESVILLE, FL -- 05/16/09 -- The FDA and other special interest health organizations may want to ban e-cigarettes as quickly as possible, but according to E-Cigarettes National they may not realize what they are getting themselves into.
A quick glance at the comments and reviews on news articles concerning e-cigarettes reveals an overwhelming support base for the e-cigarette. Forums, comments, and product reviews have resulted in a massive following of the products, with most people claiming that they have either stopped using tobacco cigarettes in favor of their "e-cig" or that they have drastically reduced their smoking habits.
Many comment that they feel better after using their e-cigarette, while others say that the product is a great concept, just not for them. Success stories are prominent, all the while the FDA and American Legacy Foundation state that there is no evidence that the products actually help smokers quit the habit.
Commenter "ready to fight" on an article on Associated Content says, "I have had enough of the government dictating my life. If the FDA bans e-cigs I will not accept it and I will fight the ban by any means possible (peacefully). Believe me when I say we have not even begun to fight and the fat lady is not singing."
On the same article, Joe Piscapo is of a similar mindset: "If they ban electronic cigarettes, I feel that people will start to freak out, myself included. There are so many smokers who made the switch and are completely happy, breathe better, feel better, and no longer smoke tobacco cigarettes."
On NBCbayarea.com, xtobacco smoker is a little more critical of the FDA, saying, "have it, love it, highly suggest it to anyone who wants to stop smoking tobacco and still 'smoke'… can even work your way down to 0 nicotine. Smoked for 15 years, I can't even stand the smell of regular tobacco. FDA will find something wrong with it… if you enjoy it the FDA will say it is not good for you."
With comments like these, it is unclear at this point what will happen to e-cigarettes. If the FDA bans them, smokers have lost the battle, but what about the war?

Big Tobacco Lures Young Smokers With Menthol Cigarettes

Tobacco companies are manipulating menthol levels in cigarettes to appeal to newer, younger smokers, part of a deliberate strategy to get younger people, particularly African-Americans, hooked, a new study contends.

Menthol makes cigarettes more palatable to the novice smoker.

"If anything, menthol is being used as a candy to help the toxin go down," said Dr. Gregory Connolly, senior author of a paper being published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health. "If we let the industry go ahead and willy-nilly design the product the way they want to, it's going to lead to the premature death of millions and millions of Americans. Our research says we have to go after this."

A bill pending in Congress would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration power to regulate menthol and other additives in cigarettes.

"This study provides evidence of one of the many ways tobacco companies manipulate the ingredients in cigarettes in an effort to entice and addict new consumers," John R. Seffrin, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society, said in a news release. "Legislation in Congress would give the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products and put an end to tobacco industry practices that prey upon children and blatantly mislead adults. The bill would end the marketing of tobacco products to children, force companies for the first time to disclose the ingredients in their products and allow the FDA to regulate all tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, based on science."

Menthol itself is not addictive, but it can ease the "delivery" of nicotine, which is highly addictive. More than 70 percent of African-American smokers use menthol cigarettes, compared with about 30 percent of white smokers. It's unclear if menthol cigarettes are more harmful than "regular" cigarettes, the study authors said.

Connolly and his colleagues looked at internal tobacco-industry documents which showed that companies researched how menthol levels could affect sales among different demographic groups. Cigarettes with milder menthol levels appeal to younger smokers.

Then they measured menthol levels in mentholated cigarettes, which proliferated after the signing of the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998, the historic settlement between tobacco companies and 46 U.S. states. Newport had the lowest levels of menthol, while traditional Kool cigarettes the highest, the researchers said.

Last, they looked at an existing survey of smoking in the general U.S. population.

"We found that, once again, menthol was the predominant brand smoked by African-American teens, and they smoked it at higher rates than older African-Americans," said Connolly, who is professor of the practice of public health and director of the Tobacco Control Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Surprisingly, we found that Caucasian teens smoked menthol at higher rates than expected, indicating that hip-hop was moving into the suburbs."

The deliberate manipulation of menthol levels was accompanied by more focused advertising of mentholated cigarettes (advertising for non-mentholated brands fell) and the introduction of new brands such as Marlboro Milds in 2000, the researchers said.

"The product itself stands outside the law, and industry is exploiting that, tailoring their brands to specific groups and integrating that with what marketing they have left and, unfortunately, they're being successful," Connolly said. "The outcome should be regulation of menthol by the FDA. It's the one hole."

The study authors also argued that this industry practice is a violation of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which prohibits companies from marketing directly or indirectly to youths.

The new study was funded by The American Legacy Foundation (formed in the wake of the MSA) and the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

David Sylvia, a spokesman for cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, said: "We don't believe that this study's hypothesis or conclusions are supported by the facts cited in the study. In fact, we disagree with their conclusion that menthol levels in our products were manipulated to gain market share among adolescents, and are unable to find any evidence supporting that conclusion within this study.

"This study almost exclusively relies on information about young adults who are legal-aged smokers who are at or above the legal age of smoking," he added.

Tobacco Taxes - 2003 Public Acts Chapter 294

2003 Tennessee Public Acts Chapter 294 requires the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Revenue to develop and make available for public inspection a Directory listing all Tobacco Product Manufacturers, along with their Brand Families, that are eligible to sell cigarettes (including roll-your-own) in Tennessee. Specifically, these are the Tobacco Product Manufacturers that have provided current and accurate certifications conforming to the requirements of Public Chapter 294, and in the case of Non-Participating Manufacturers, have made all required escrow payments and satisfied any outstanding final judgments, including interest thereon, pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 47-31-103. Section 3 (c) of Public Chapter 294 provides that it shall be unlawful for any person (1) to affix a stamp to a package or other container of cigarettes of a tobacco product manufacturer or Brand Family not included in the Directory, and (2) to sell, offer or possess for sale, in this state, or import for personal consumption in this state, Cigarettes of a Tobacco Product manufacturer or Brand Family not included in the Directory. Any Cigarettes that have been sold, offered for sale or possessed for sale, in this state, or imported for personal consumption in this state, in violation of Section 3 (c) shall be deemed contraband under Public Chapter and shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture.

The Commissioner shall update the Directory as necessary in order to correct mistakes and to add or remove a Tobacco Product Manufacturer or Brand Family to keep the Directory in conformity with the requirements of Public Chapter 294.

The listing of any company in this Directory does not constitute a waiver of any rights the State of Tennessee may have to seek payment under the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement or into a Non-Participating Manufacturer qualified escrow fund from the responsible manufacturer, to remove a company name or Brand Family from the Directory and to take whatever other legal action.