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A deadline for lawsuits seeking to recoup smokers’ health-care costs from a Japan Tobacco Inc. unit that had been sought by British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick was rejected by a judge for coming prematurely.
The Canadian provinces want their claims for treating people with smoking-related illnesses included among those of creditors for Japan Tobacco’s insolvent JTI-MacDonald unit. The provinces said they feared nothing would remain if JTI settled a federal lawsuit that seeks to recover lost taxes from cigarette smuggling in the 1990s.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Cumming called the request premature in an Oct. 30 ruling. The provinces may challenge the company’s plan to exit bankruptcy when it is submitted, the judge said.
“There is no plan of arrangement being put forth or even seen at this point on the distant horizon,” Cumming wrote.
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Japan's new administration is considering raising cigarette taxes to European levels to help pay for an ambitious domestic spending plan, in a potential threat to partially state-owned Japan Tobacco Inc.
Shares of Japan Tobacco—the world's third largest cigarette company by sales volume, after Altria Group Inc. of the U.S. and British American Tobacco PLC of the U.K.—fell more than 4% Monday before recovering and ending down 0.9% to 254,300 yen, or $2,824.93.
The sharp moves followed comments Sunday by a top Japanese health official during a television interview that raised the possibility of the tax increase.
"Tobacco poses health problems. It may be necessary to raise [the tobacco tax] to the levels in Europe," said Akira Nagatsuma, minister of health, labor and welfare.
The health ministry already has asked the government's tax panel to increase the tobacco tax as part of tax reforms for fiscal 2010.
Meanwhile, Japan Tobacco, which on Thursday reported a 5 per cent drop in net profits in the first half, also expects overseas markets to be its growth engine.
The group said that in addition to a downturn in domestic demand, the yen’s strength was a major factor behind its disappointing performance.
JT, which acquired Gallaher in 2007, said that if the impact of currency fluctuations was discounted, overseas sales were forecast to grow 13 per cent this year.
Furthermore, JT raised its sales and operating forecast for the full year, due to the impact of currency shifts.
Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, raised its full- year profit forecast 8 percent on projected currency gains and increasing market share for brands including Camel and Winston.
Net income may be 108 billion yen ($1.2 billion) for the year ending March, compared with its previous estimate of 100 billion yen, the company said in a statement today. Annual sales may total 6.09 trillion yen, compared with its previous forecast of 6 trillion yen.
“We are changing our forecast mainly because we have changed our exchange-rate assumptions,” Executive Deputy President Munetaka Takeda said in a briefing in Tokyo today.
The maker of Mild Seven cigarettes seeks to boost overseas sales as a declining smoking rate shrinks its home market.
Canadian provinces, seeking more than C$80 billion ($76 billion) from tobacco companies for treatment of smoking-related illnesses, are attempting to improperly use the bankruptcy process to force Japan Tobacco Inc.’s JTI-MacDonald unit to settle, a company lawyer said.
“The strategy is to force JTI into an expedited settlement,” David Scott, a lawyer for the tobacco company, told Superior Court Judge Peter Cumming in Toronto today. “It’s a lever to force JTI to settle these health-care claims.”
JTI-MacDonald, the maker of Export A cigarettes in Canada, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004, after a Quebec judge ordered the company to pay C$1.4 billion that the province claims it lost in taxes when tobacco companies exported cigarettes to the U.S. in the 1990s, knowing they would be smuggled back into Canada for resale on the black market.
British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick today asked Cumming to put a time limit on new lawsuits seeking to recoup health-care costs from JTI-MacDonald and allow their claims to be included in the company’s restructuring process. The request put the provinces at odds with the federal government, which sided with the tobacco company and urged the judge to either dismiss it or put it on hold indefinitely.
JTI Leaf Services' decision to process American-grown tobacco in Danville doesn't just mean 39 new full-time jobs and 150 seasonal jobs.
It's about more opportunities for the Dan River Region's tobacco farmers -- and a potential shot in the arm for the local agricultural economy.
"They're here. They never left," Commissioner Todd Haymore of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said of local tobacco farmers last week. "They have the land and the infrastructure. They have the knowledge and the know-how." . . .
we think it's a smart investment in jobs that can be filled quickly by a company that recognizes the quality product grown here.
The Dan River Region needs every good job it can get, and growth in the tobacco sector through JTI Leaf Services' commitment to our community is great news.
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has attacked the UK government for its plan to ban retailers from displaying tobacco.
In advance of the third reading of the UK Health Bill, in the House of Commons today (Monday 12 October 2009), Daniel Torras, JTI's UK managing director, said:
"The UK Government continues to demonstrate that it fails to recognise or listen to the evidence provided by key stakeholders that hiding cigarette packs from view in retail outlets will not achieve its goal of further reducing youth smoking. There is no credible evidence that tobacco display bans reduce youth smoking."
Japan Tobacco International developed a partnership with Hail & Cotton and J.E.B. International to form JTI Leaf Services, which will process domestic tobacco in Danville, president Steven Daniels of the new company announced Thursday morning.
JTI Leaf Services' offices, tobacco receiving, processing and finished product storage will be located in the Riverview Industrial Park at 202 Stinson Drive in the former Dan River Distribution Center.
Japan Tobacco's $19.5 million investment will bring 39 full-time jobs and 150 seasonal jobs by the time the facility is up and running in August 2010.
"We're excited to be a part of the community and we look forward to a long and successful partnership," Daniels said.
«Japan Tobacco International» company suggests to the government of RK using new methods of estimating of laws’ influence on markets
In Astana this issues has been discussed during round-table meeting organized by «Economist» magazine for business circles. Anastasios Sitsas, general manager of JTI Kazakhstan says the main advantage of innovation will be reducing of risks and expenses of regulating and unjustified load on business is also decreases. These methods allow to foresee all possible consequences of changes until the laws come into force. Its basis is expanded discussing of regulatory measures with experts and interested sides. Currently the company together with acknowledged international academic institutions is ready to organize trainings on methods for state employees.
This databook provides key data and information on the tobacco market in Singapore. This report is a comprehensive resource for market, category and segment level data including value, volume, distribution share and company & brand share. This report also provides expenditure and consumption data for the historic and forecast periods.
Further to the comments of Japan Tobacco International's Daniel Torras (Letters, 17 September), the Canadian province of Saskatchewan has had seven years' experience with a retail display ban.
A government survey shows our youth smoking rate has decreased from 29 per cent in 2002 to 20 per cent in 2008. All parties supported this and other measures, and the law has had good public support. Ex-smokers also say it is easier to resist the temptation to resume smoking when not faced with tobacco displays.
The negative economic impact claimed by the tobacco industry and others has not happened. Neither has there been an increase in smuggling.
We commend the Scottish Government for putting the interests of Scotland's children first. Please ignore the fear-mongering of an industry that is only interested in garnering new customers. It will fight to keep its product in front of the next generation of smokers – the children and youth of Scotland.
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) moved aggressively over the summer to take more control of its leaf acquisitions in international markets. On June 12, JTI announced it had bought the leaf tobacco business of the British dealer Tribac Leaf Limited, which has operated in Malawi, Zambia, China, and India, among others. Tribac's organization will be integrated into the Global Leaf Procurement Group. Tribac has agreed to supply JTI with leaf from Zimbabwe.
At the same time, JTI said it had agreed with the US leaf dealers Hail & Cotton and J.E.B International to form a joint venture to procure and process US leaf for JTI. JTI Leaf Services will begin contracting with farmers for the 2010 crop, said Jay Edward Barker, a principal in J.E.B. International. By the end of 2010 crop marketing, JTI Leaf Services plans to take delivery of most of its leaf at its own receiving stations, said Barker. These stations will be established throughout the tobacco-growing area, he added, though no locations were named.
TOBACCO bosses have been slammed for “marketing death” by using beautiful young women dressed in orange satin jump suits to sell their product in busy bars.
Young women, carrying trays reminiscent of those used by ice cream vendors at cinemas, have been going into pubs selling cigarettes.
The pubs involved, which include the Centurion bar in Newcastle city centre, allow the girls into the bar in return for a small amount in commission for each packet sold.
The sales tactic was blasted by Ailsa Rutter, Director of Fresh – the campaign for a smoke-free North East.
She said: “What this is doing is glamorising the most lethal consumer product known.
“The last thing we need is the blatant promotion of cigarettes, which are the region’s biggest killer.
“There needs to be more regulation of an industry which is basically marketing death.”
Customers in the bar were approached by girls selling Benson and Hedges cigarettes on special offer – two packets for £6.
The percentage of smokers among adults has fallen 0.8 point from a year earlier to 24.9 percent, hitting a record low for the 14th straight year, an annual survey conducted in May by Japan Tobacco Inc. showed Friday.
"Multiple factors appear to have caused the decline, such as increased health awareness and tightening of regulations on smoking," said Japan's sole tobacco producer.
The smoking rate for men fell for the 18th consecutive year to 38.9 percent, down 0.6 point from the previous year, while the rate for women stood at 11.9 percent, down 1.0 point, following a 0.2 point rise the previous year.
Based on its latest survey, the total number of smokers was estimated at 26.01 million, down 790,000 from the previous year, JT said.
In addition to increasing restrictions on smoking in public places, the government's introduction of the Taspo smart cards has apparently discouraged smoking, JT said.
The percentage of smokers in Japan has fallen below a quarter of the adult population for the first time, with both men and women lighting up less, according to the results of a nationwide survey released Friday by Japan Tobacco Inc. (2914.TO).
In the annual survey, carried out in May by the world's third-largest tobacco producer by volume, 24.9% of respondents considered themselves to be smokers. The result is lower than last year's figure of 25.7%, and marks the lowest level since the company, known as JT, started compiling such data in 1965.
Japan had long been considered a smokers' paradise, with smoking rates hitting a peak of 49.4% in 1966. But the country has experienced a gradual decline in the number of smokers, due in part to an aging population, increased health consciousness and more stringent smoking regulations.
With slowing sales in Japan keeping a lid on revenue, JT is looking to gain a greater share of growing markets such as Russia and the Middle East