BUSINESS: 381 PRACTICES
Papastratos, in 2017 turned the page in its long history and, with a significant €300-million investment, transformed its factory in Aspropyrgos into an exclusive heated tobacco sticks production unit for IQOS.
This action’s aims to:
a) Greek citizens, especially adult smokers, in order to be informed about the consequences of the illicit trade so that, among other things, there is a reduction of the social tolerance to this phenomenon. b) The competent Ministries (eg. Ministry of Public Order, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Shipping) as well as the prosecuting authorities (Greek Police, Coast Guard, Customs, Financial Crime) in order to obtain cooperation and to strengthen the affords to combat this phenomenon.
From late 2012 until Autumn 2016.
Illegal trade in EU equals approximately to 10% of the legal cigarette consumption. In Greece in 2015, it was about 20% when in 2009 it was only about 3%.
The illicit trade in tobacco affects the whole society and the economy. The consequences of the illicit trade are lost revenue for public funds, lost jobs and revenue for the legitimate supply chain (tobacco producers, industry, retail trade), finance of criminal activities in other sectors (drugs, weapons and human trafficking) , subversion of the public health objectives, uncontrolled young people’s access to cheap cigarettes and the country’s negative image and reputation abroad.
Papastratos, as the industry’s leader in Greece, was the first one that started the initiative "NO TO ILLEGAL CIGARETTES” in October 2012 and then «NO TO ILLEGAL BULK TOBACCO". As part of this initiative a series of actions have been implemented and they continue until today. The initiatives are:
1) Wide information and awareness campaign for the citizens about the negative impact of smuggling tobacco - 7 waves of campaigns since 2012. The campaign is being supported by a large range of stakeholders: the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, the Ministry of Citizen Protection, the Ministry of Marine and Island Policy, Athens Municipality, the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the tobacco transformers’ union, the kiosks owners’ union, the PASEGES and the Institution of Customers. Since 2014, it is being supported also by the importing tobacco companies. The information campaign is constantly expanding. In 2016, it involved media such as newspapers, radio, internet, Athens metro and bus stations all over across the country.
2) Financing destruction of seized cigarettes by law enforcement authorities.
3) Organization of the first conference in Greece on illegal trade, in cooperation with IOBE, which was attended by journalists, representatives of companies, the industry, law enforcement authorities and the Ministry of Finance.
4) In 2014, Papastratos signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Coast Guard to provide technical infrastructure and trainings in the identification of illegal products. As part of the MOC, Papastratos donated special thermal cameras to the Coast used mainly for tracking night illegal activities.
5) An industry cooperation agreement on illicit tobacco trade was signed in 2015. The other three multinational tobacco companies have embraced our initiative. Since then, we are all doing together awareness campaigns and actions.
6) Organization of a conference in 2015, together with the other three multinational tobacco product companies, with speakers the Secretary General Anticorruption, the Director of the Deputy Minister of Finance office, Mr. Alexiadis and foreign entities’ representatives.
7) Papastratos donated the 1st in Greece mobile x-ray scanner value of two million (EUR 2,000,000) to the Ministry of Finance for containers and vehicles to identify and seize illicit consignments of tobacco products. According to the Deputy Minister of Finance "it will be an important" weapon "of the control state mechanism in the fight against tobacco smuggling and corruption."
8) Provision of technical trainings to more than 1250 members of law enforcement authorities (500 executives were trained in 2013 by Papastratos’ initiative, while 750 additional officers were trained in 2016 by a joint initiative of the 3 companies) in order to be able to identify the illegal products.
9) Informational events in Larissa and Xanthi for local actors.
10) Distribution of special informational leaflet’s by PAPASTRATOS’ sales team in all retail stores and kiosks in the country
11) An coordination in Greece of important PAPASTRATOS parent company’s initiative, the program «PMI IMPACT», participation in which can provide programs against smuggling and related crimes with $ 100 million for three years.
At the heart of PMI IMPACT is a prestigious board of external independent experts, seven members, who have indisputable
prestige in the fields of law, combating corruption and law enforcement, which will surveillance.
All Greece.
These actions are Papastratos’ initiatives in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, the Ministry of Citizen Protection, the Ministry of Marine and Island Policy, the Athens Municipality, the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the tobacco transformers’ union, the kiosk owners’ union and PASEGES, the Greek Police, Coast Guard, Customs, the Financial Crime, the Unified Association of Tobacco Companies Europe, the British American Tobacco, the Japan Tobacco Ιinternational and the Imperial Tobacco. It is a synergy of many different actors from the private and public sector cooperating for a common good cause.
A large group of employees from different sectors and departments from Papastratos cooperated in order to implementation those actions: the higher management, the corporate affairs, the legal department, as well as, the corporate affairs team from Philip Morris International’s central offices in Switzerland.
Also the pre-mentioned ministries, law enforcement agencies and institutions as well as representatives of multinational tobacco companies participated in this action.
Stabilization of the phenomenon’s growth rate – According to KPMG Project SUN, in 2015, there was a small drop of illicit trade for the first time since 2009. The 20.6% share of illicit cigarettes, as a percentage of the total consumption, declined by about 1 percentage, to 19.8%.
Extensive publicity has been given to all the action. It is worth to mention that our efforts have been officially appreciated by: a) the Coast Guard and the Greek Police for the technical training, b) the Ministry of Finance for the x-ray scanner.
No Connection with Global Goals found
