Sampoerna Clarifies Canned Cigarettes Issue
20 August 2014 13:26 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In response to a report published in en.tempo.co on canned cigarettes, Head of Regulatory Affairs for HM Sampoerna Elvira Lianita, clarified that the company had never had any intention to outsmart any regulation related to pictorial health warnings. (Read: Canned Cigarettes, New Way of Outsmarting Regulation)
"The majority of cigarette companies have had done the same thing for their own produced brands," Elvira stated in a written statement sent to Tempo via email.
She also explained that the canned cigarettes were produced in a very limited number of around 0.1 percent of the company's total production, and were marketed on early May 2014. Furthermore, she said that the production of the canned cigarettes was stopped on June 2014, before the regulation on pictorial health warnings came into force.
In addition, Elvira also stated that due to its low production number, the canned cigarettes did not provide significant benefits for the company.
MAHINDA ARKYASA
