nickshanagher

This short BBC news item to take note of the move to standardised packaging in Australia is important. I was especially struck by the views of the British people about what plain packaging does and the arguments of Simon Clark. UK tobacco retailers should watch this and think about what is being said and look at the tobacco displays. I will share this link with my MP and ask him to contact the health minister and say we don't want such an experiment here. Of course I am biased but as Nate Silver demonstrates in The Signal and the Noise, everyone is. The arguments on this short item, saved for us on You Tube by Simon as the BBC does not upload Breakfast on to its iplayer, are persuasive.

This is the content of my letter that I sent last week to the civil servants asking for feedback on their ideas for tobacco packaging changes in the UK. 9 August 2012 Retaining the status quo on tobacco packaging is the best option for effective long term tobacco control in the UK Dear Sirs My company specialises in energising independent retailers in the news and convenience market in the UK. These local businesses rely heavily on tobacco to generate footfall and for cash flow and profit purposes. They generally comply with tobacco legislation and make very low profits out of handling tobacco products responsibly. Most retailers share your desire to improve public health and they comply with regulation on the sale of tobacco. This is time consuming but there is widespread consumer desire to buy tobacco products and most local retailers want to meet this demand rather than send shoppers elsewhere. Small shopkeepers have lots of rules and regulations to f...

It is a Catch 22 situation. The margin on a pack of premium cigarettes sold at recommended retail price is overwhelmed by the sheer size of the government's tax take to the point where some retailers say they cannot borrow money cheaply enough to cover the cost of their stockholding. Using a pack of Lambert and Butler as an example, Amal Pramanik, general manager of Imperial Tobacco UK, told wholesalers last week that 81 per cent of its £7.19 selling price was taken in excise duties and VAT, leaving just £1.42 to be shared out by the manufacturer and retailers. On value brands, the government was taking as much as 88 per cent of the selling price. Well aware that retailers are criticising his company for the low margins, Mr Pramanick says that retailers should look at their margin against the net sales price after stripping out government duty. On L&B this works out at 37p, which has increased by 33 per cent over the past five years. It is a tiny 5.1 per cent margin on the ...

"We want to be part of the debate," Martin Southgate, managing director of the UK arm of tobacco manufacturer JTI said last week as he introduced the start of a £2m campaign against plans for standardised packaging of tobacco in the UK. Removing the ability of tobacco companies to promote their brands on their packets is a serious threat to the tobacco companies. The winners, Mr Southgate said, will be the criminals. "We are taking a stand because we are fighting for the legitimate part of our industry; the part that is now being put under threat by the other part: the criminal part," he said. High taxes create the profit opportunity. Display bans make the boot of a car an attractive sales outlet. Plain packaging makes counterfeit goods easy. JTI's campaign started by pointing out two things. Firstly, that there was no evidence to suggest that plain packs would reduce tobacco consumption. Secondly, that Better Regulation rules adopted by the UK governmen...

There has been an interesting debate on the pages of the Financial Times about proposals to force tobacco companies to use standardised packaging. It was sparked by an interview with Alison Cooper, the chief executive of Imperial Tobacco, who said the proposed measures were anti-business. The FT's business and society columnist Michael Skapinker responded the next week with a column that dismissed her suggestions that the government was going too far in destroying brands. He said that of "all legal businesses, smoking stands alone in its harmfulness." He argued that the government had a right to regulate the market but he failed to note that Ms Cooper did not dispute this right. The tobacco industry understands that its products are harmful. Mr Skapinker moved on to say the only arguable point in favour of the cigarette business is that it allows individuals choice "and even that is largely bogus". As a columnist, he is entitled to his views. But he is mis...