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Research and Markets: Tobacco in Switzerland  

The Tobacco in Switzerland report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2012 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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• Front of store, front of mind – but for WHO? 

Where, in an acutely sensitive regulatory environment, should the tobacco category be positioned in a duty free store?

When The Nuance Group opened its splendid new 650sq m tax & duty free store at Geneva International Airport earlier this month, it opted to place the entire tobacco category at the entrance of the store – displayed in what Nuance called a “breathtaking black and white setting”.

The logic is obvious. As many studies have proven, tobacco is not just a major drawcard in most duty free stores, it is also a tremendous fooftall (and therefore penetration) driver for other categories.

In Geneva that’s especially the case. The airport’s cigar assortment has long been a hallmark of the retail offer (it has been considerably enhanced here) and the cigarettes category is particularly important to the Geneva passenger profile.

But one wonders how that positioning sits with the approach likely to be adopted in English and Scottish duty free stores, where travel retailers have sought an exemption from proposed tobacco display restrictions that are being touted under the Health Bill. . . .

As we reported recently, The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Display) (England) Regulations 2010 propose wide-ranging limitations on the display and merchandising of tobacco products.

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Tobacco Deal With Tennis Organisation May Breach UK And International Law 

Six years after the ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in the UK, a London-based sports body stands accused of breaching the law by promoting a cigarette brand on its website.[1] The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) which represents the world's top male tennis players, is responsible for the sponsorship contracts for the various international tournaments. The next ATP World Tour tournament, which is due to take place in Basel, Switzerland from 31 October to 8 November, is sponsored by Davidoff, a cigarette brand manufactured by Imperial Tobacco. The Swiss indoor tournament is believed to be the only one in the world to be sponsored by a tobacco company.

British-based Imperial Tobacco acquired the Davidoff cigarette brand in 2006 and has exploited the weak law in Switzerland which still allows events to be sponsored by tobacco companies, although tobacco advertising on television is banned. However, the televising of the event means that tobacco advertising will be beamed into the homes of more than one billion people worldwide, [2] contrary to Article 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which has been signed by 160 countries worldwide. [3]

ASH has written to the ATP urging the organisation to end its ties with the tobacco industry when the current contract comes to an end and is seeking clarification from the Department of Health regarding the possible breach of UK law.

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• Tobacco deal with tennis organisation may breach UK and international law 

Six years after the ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in the UK, a London-based sports body stands accused of breaching the law by promoting a cigarette brand on its website.[1] The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) which represents the world's top male tennis players, is responsible for the sponsorship contracts for the various international tournaments. The next ATP World Tour tournament, which is due to take place in Basel, Switzerland from 31 October to 8 November, is sponsored by Davidoff, a cigarette brand manufactured by Imperial Tobacco. The Swiss indoor tournament is believed to be the only one in the world to be sponsored by a tobacco company.

British-based Imperial Tobacco acquired the Davidoff cigarette brand in 2006 and has exploited the weak law in Switzerland which still allows events to be sponsored by tobacco companies, although tobacco advertising on television is banned. However, the televising of the event means that tobacco advertising will be beamed into the homes of more than one billion people worldwide, [2] contrary to Article 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which has been signed by 160 countries worldwide. [3]

ASH has written to the ATP urging the organisation to end its ties with the tobacco industry when the current contract comes to an end and is seeking clarification from the Department of Health regarding the possible breach of UK law.

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• Federer fires up anti-smoking emotions  

As Roger Federer sets out to win his fourth consecutive Swiss Indoors title in Basel, a debate has reignited over tobacco sponsorship in sport.

The tournament, which has been sponsored by Swiss luxury brand Davidoff since 1994 and starts on Monday, is one of the last in the world to be sponsored by a tobacco company – and health campaigners aren't happy.

"First of all, linking sport and tobacco is utterly perverse," Jürg Hurter, president of Pro Aere, Switzerland's largest organisation against passive smoking, told swissinfo.ch.

"Second, the tobacco industry – who aren't idiots – try to get around tobacco promotion laws by sponsoring sporting events or by branding various products."

Pascal Diethelm, director of the anti-smoking group OxyRomandie, said last year "players drowned in an advertising soup for Davidoff".

"At the end of the match the young ball boys and ball girls received a medal from Roger Federer in recognition of having served the cause of Davidoff so well. Each medal bore the Davidoff logo in order to make sure that these potential smokers would know which cigarette brand to choose," he said. . . .

"This discussion is like the Loch Ness monster – it comes back every year!" Jürg Vogel, a member of the Swiss Indoors organising committee, told swissinfo.ch.

"Davidoff sells not only tobacco but also perfumes and other accessories. I think you have to see the whole picture.

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• National smoking ban draws mixed response 

The Swiss Pulmonary League has slammed the cabinet’s announcement yesterday on terms of the nationwide smoking ban, which will come into effect on May 1 next year. The ruling has, however, been broadly welcomed by the hotel and restaurant industry.

The Pulmonary League has accused the government of ‘bending over backwards’ to accommodate the tobacco industry’s lobbies, saying the law, as discussed in parliament, has been woefully watered down.

On the other hand, representatives of the hotel and restaurant sector say they’re relieved that the cabinet has steered the legislation ‘more or less back on the right track’.

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瑞士明年5月1日起在公共场所禁烟 

瑞士联邦政府２８日批准了防止被动吸烟保护法的实施日期，决定从２０１０年５月１日起，依据这一法律在公共场所和两人以上工作场所禁烟。

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• Tobacco sponsorship of tennis tournament goes ahead because of weak Swiss legislation, says campaigning group  

A Swiss antismoking campaign group is concerned that weak legislation in the country is being exploited by Imperial Tobacco to sponsor a tennis tournament and promote its brand of cigarettes and other products. The company is the fourth largest tobacco company in the world.

Switzerland is a sanctuary for the tobacco industry, said Pascal Diethelm, director of the antismoking group OxyRomandie, ahead of the Davidoff Swiss indoor tournament, which starts on 31 October as part of the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour 500. The tournament, which is one of the last tobacco sponsored tennis events in the world, is being used by the company to intensively advertise its Davidoff brand, on court hoardings and the uniforms of line judges and ball girls and boys, said Mr Diethelm.

The last time the tournament was held in Basel in 2008, the "players drowned in an advertising soup for Davidoff," he said.

He added, "At the end of the match the young ball boys and ball girls received a medal from Roger Federer in recognition of having served the cause of Davidoff so well. Each medal bore the Davidoff logo in order to make sure that these potential future smokers will know which cigarette brand to choose when they start smoking."

OxyRomandie is appealing to the federal tribunal, Switzerland’s supreme court, against a ruling from the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television that Swiss television is allowed to show the tournament even though Swiss law bans tobacco advertising on television.

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The Good Life—that is the art of living. A culture of its own that revolves around taking time, perceiving the world with all the senses in order to experience the fine nuances of pleasure.
Davidoff's "The Good Life" campaign. The Davidoff Swiss indoor tennis tournament is under fire.

• Geneva's smoking ban returns after one-year break 

A ban on smoking in public places will return to Switzerland's Geneva canton after being approved in a referendum Sunday, a year after a court ended a first bid to prohibit lighting up.

Geneva's residents voted 81.77 percent in favour of bringing back the ban, with only 18.3 percent voting against.

A canton-wide smoking ban in public places was originally introduced on July 1, 2008, after the state government used a first referendum as grounds for pushing through the move.

But the Federal Tribunal ruled three months later that the ban should not have been passed by the canton's lawmakers before the state's government enacted legislation. . . .

The new rules allow bar, hotel and restaurant owners to fit out special smoking rooms in their establishments . . .

Supporters of the ban are opposed to this compromise, however, and said Sunday they would appeal to the Federal Tribunal.

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New Innovation Could Soon Free Non-Smokers from the Fog 

A Swiss company is seeking to make a name for itself with a new idea to protect non-smokers through innovative thinking and, at the same time, enable smokers to continue consuming their nicotine.

Buoyed by a great deal of self-confidence and harboring high expectations of generating substantial profits, Olig AG http://www.olig.ag set out to protect non-smokers in a not entirely altruistic fashion. According to Marcel Köller, member of the Board of Directors, the company is now in a position to manufacture a smokefree cigarette which looks like a conventional cigarette, produces heat, contains tobacco and nicotine and does not give off any irritating smoke. In addition, the cigarette does not require any external energy sources.

The only drawback is that, just like the traditional cigarette, the new one is a throwaway product, which will probably please the refuse industry as well.

This fact will not however deter inveterate smokers who still wish to fulfill their need, anytime, anywhere, from consuming tobacco. The whole smoking ritual will have been completed anyway.

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• Talks aim to stub out illicit tobacco trade 

The growing illegal trade in cigarettes costs governments billions of dollars, causes huge health problems and finances militant groups, say activists.

The claims were made as 130 countries resumed talks in Geneva this week on expanding an international anti-smoking treaty to clamp down on the trade in black market cigarettes.

According to a report published this week by the International Union against Tobacco and Lung Disease, one in nine cigarettes – or 657 billion cigarettes a year – is sold illicitly by organised crime gangs. . . .

According to Ian Willmore of the Framework Convention Alliance, a network of some 350 anti-tobacco campaign groups, the nature of tobacco smuggling has changed but it still remains a major problem.

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Cigarette Smuggling Finances "Terrorist" Groups - Campaigners  

GENEVA (AFP)--Cigarette and tobacco smuggling is financing militant or extremist groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and sapping about $40 billion a year from government budgets, campaigners said Monday.

The allegations were made as 160 countries resumed talks at the World Health Organization on expanding an international antismoking treaty to clamp down on the illicit trade in tobacco. . . .

An alliance of some 350 anti-tobacco campaign groups said in a statement that concerted action against the contraband and counterfeit cigarettes trade would far outweigh the $40.5 billion in lost tax revenue.

Some 11.6% of the global cigarette market was illicit, equivalent to some 657 billion cigarettes a year, the International Union against Tobacco and Lung Disease estimated in a report.

Researchers also alleged that "half a dozen terrorist" or militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Hezbollah, left-wing FARC rebels in Colombia and the Real IRA in Northern Ireland, rely on black market tobacco for revenue.

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Smoking ban delay angers Lung League 

The Zurich Lung League says it’s ‘outraged’ by the canton’s decision to delay a planned smoking ban. Zurich canton officials have decided that they won’t put the smoking ban in place in October as planned, but have pushed it back until sometime next year.

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Zurich authorities delay smoking ban 

Cafés and restaurants in Zurich won’t be smoke-free from October as planned. Cantonal officials have decided to push back the smoking ban, so they’ll have time to adapt it and bring it in alongside federal legislation. That means the ban won’t be brought in until January 2010 at the earliest.

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• The Montenegro Connection 

“My little cat … I’m going crazy without you …. You have repeatedly betrayed me, I think …. Little cat, when are you coming? ... I love you, little cat.” On Jan. 4, 2001, Dusanka Pesic Jeknic, representative of the Montenegrin trade mission in Milan, Italy, was speaking on the phone at her home in the southwest of the city. Milo Djukanovic, at that time president of Montenegro, was calling from the capital Podgorica. Billions of people around the world had just hailed the New Millennium. Dusanka, nicknamed “Duska,” the beautiful 41-year-old widow of the late foreign minister of Montenegro, was alone, far from her country. And she spoke out freely about everything: love, tobacco, and crime.

Eight years after Jeknic’s loving conversation with her president, transcripts of her phone calls, wiretapped by the Italian police for 20 months, are attached to hundreds of thousands of court records filed by the prosecutor’s office in Bari, in southern Italy. Here, in the Apulia region’s capital, facing Montenegro across the Adriatic Sea, prosecutors Giuseppe Scelsi and Eugenia Pontassuglia have at last wrapped up their long-running investigation of Djukanovic, Jeknic, and six other Montenegrins and Serbs, as well as seven Italians allegedly tied to organized crime. Their indictment charged the group with, among other offenses, mafia association aimed at illicit trafficking of tobacco, a serious crime in Italy. The indictment and an accompanying 409-page report by Italy’s anti-mafia unit, the DIA, which have not before been made public, provide an extraordinary look inside what may be one of Europe’s biggest smuggling operations in recent years — a tale of corruption, murdered witnesses, and a billion dollars in money laundered through Swiss banks.

From 1994 to 2002, smugglers shipped up to one billion cigarettes a month from the Montenegrin port of Bar to the Italian city of Bari and nearby. . . .

At the center of this case is a hidden bit of history, say prosecutors, of how tobacco smuggling became a state enterprise in Montenegro . . .

Djukanovic is now prime minister of that “Tortuga.” Re-elected in March, he leads a country where for nearly 17 of the past 18 years he has served as either prime minister or president. And he is pushing hard for Montenegro to join the European Union, which is now considering the country’s membership. To that end Djukanovic counts on his main supporter, Italy’s premier Silvio Berlusconi, who in March lauded him during a state-visit in Podgorica. . . .

Affiliated with Serbia until 2006, Montenegro is now fully independent, but some EU nations, notably Belgium and Germany, remain skeptical that the country is ready to join the West. Djukanovic has said that the smuggling is a thing of the past . . .

Starting June 3, Bari Judge Rosa Calia Di Pinto will hold a preliminary hearing to decide whether or not the evidence gathered by prosecutors is enough to put the indicted on trial. The judge will hear a story of a “mafia war” stretching into 10 countries: not only Italy and Montenegro, but also Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Aruba, and the United States. So far, two key witnesses and five others mentioned in the case have been murdered.

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