A New Type Of Cigarette Venture - RYO Jamaica Pursues Operators For Multi-Store Network

Jamaicans for decades have bought cigarettes by the stick and by the carton at corners shops, from streetside sellers, and a multiplicity of businesses that make money off a habit that is hard to kick.

What has been absent up to now is a dedicated retail channel focused solely on smokers, and selling cigarettes alone. That changed in July when the first U-Roll'em shop was opened in Kingston by a Jamaican couple resident in Florida.

It gets better. Customers get to hand-roll their own sticks - customise their own products - in an extension of the 'grabba' market, which offers the same options but in a more informal way. It's not unusual for some smokers, for example, to season their grabba packets with marijuana.

The two Jamaicans behind the cigarette retail shop venture, Damian and Susan McKenzie, have a more sophisticated operation than the grabba trade, however. The husband and wife team owns 51 per cent and 49 per cent of the business, respectively.

The McKenzies are principals in the Palm Beach, Florida-based Tobacco Central LLC, which has set a target of 29 Caribbean countries to roll out their network of RYO - roll your own - retail outlets stocked with tobacco filling-station machines under a distributorship arrangement with owners of the RYO technology, Ohio-based RYO Filling Station Machine LLC. The American company also supplies the tobacco through a network of international sources.

The McKenzies, who migrated from Jamaica two decades ago, say that they have been pursuing different ventures for 20 years - putting them in a group dubbed 'serial entrepreneurs' - and are also owners of Total Sign Solutions and CNC Inc in Palm Beach.

They set up their first U-Roll'em Jamaica store on July 2 at The Domes Plaza on Hagley Park Road in Kingston, operated by their local subsidiary RYO Jamaica Limited. The tobacco is supplied by RYO from international sources.

Tobacco firm moves raise efficiency to improve efficiency

Morogoro. Alliance One Tobacco (T) Ltd, is implementing three projects that seek to improve its processing operations that include processing capacity through a new cigarettes processing line to improve the capacity from the current 35,000 tonnes to 60,000.

Other projects include the introduction of computerised system of loading and receiving of tobacco aimed at reducing handling time and green leaf storage at the factory and introduction of stacking racks.

A statement issued over the weekend by the company when announcing the appointment of a new managing director, Mr Mark Mason, who replaces Mr Graham Kayes, who has been appointed regional director for Alliance One Africa.

Expounding, Mr Mason said the value of the new investments this year is $10 million, bringing the total value of the company to approximately $50 million. He said other projects include installation of optical sorters which remove non tobbaco related materials, conversion of boiler from oil usage to natural gas and installation of AC variable speed drives in motors to reduce power consumption.

He noted that the future for the Tanzanian tobacco industry is strong as long as it remains competitive and continue to improve the welfare of the farmers.

“We appreciate the support the government was giving the industry and believe that we have a major role to play in poverty alleviation whilst remaining focused on health, education and environmental issues,” he said.

However, he said that they have been facing various challenges which include global oversupply situation resulting from increased worldwide production, reduced consumption due to global economic recession, smoking restrictions and bans, increased taxation on tobacco products and tobacco products regulation.

He named the other challenge as reduction in production by 20 per cent due to power problems which causes a loss of $4,000 every hour. He said due to power shortage they are forced to work four days a week instead of six.

Cigarette makers lose ruling in Louisiana

Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and other U.S. cigarette makers must pay part of a $591-million award to fund quit-smoking programs in Louisiana, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The New Orleans court upheld part of a 2004 jury verdict that said the companies must pay for a 10-year program including nicotine gum and patches, telephone lines and regional stop-smoking centers, said Russ Herman, a New Orleans lawyer representing the smokers.
The companies can appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
"On the whole, I'm very satisfied," Herman said. It wasn't immediately clear how much the companies will have to pay under the ruling, he said.
The decision upholds some aspects of the first jury verdict to require cigarette makers to pay to help smokers quit.
It comes after a federal judge in Washington ruled in August that the industry violated U.S. racketeering laws and must stop marketing cigarettes as "light" or "low-tar."
John Sorrells, a spokesman for Philip Morris parent Altria Group Inc., said the company hadn't seen the decision and declined to comment.
The Louisiana court reduced the amount the companies will have to pay and held that they would not have to pay at least $415 million in interest the smokers had claimed, Herman said.
A New Orleans jury of eight women and four men returned the underlying verdict in May 2004 after lawyers for a statewide class of smokers had asked the companies to finance smoking cessation programs for 25 years at a cost of more than $1 billion.

E-Cigarettes May Be The Answer To The Mental Addiction To Smoking

Despite the health warnings plastered all over tobacco products these days, about 1 in 3 of the population of the world smokes. The dangers of smoking have been made known for years and while many Americans have tried to quit with patches, gums, and prescription medications, some argue that the number one thing you need to do is to break the mental addiction to smoking.
The mental addiction to the act of holding something in your hand, puffing on it, and seeing the smoke is something that most people have a very difficult time getting over. The nicotine in cigarettes is cleared from the body only a few days after a person smokes their last cigarette, but the want of a smoke afterward (even 6 months afterward) can be unbearable. This is why most smoking cessation products like gums, patches, and pills do not work on a long term basis. Counseling is often needed to completely make the switch from being a smoker to being a non-smoker, but a new product may help break the mental habit by convenience alone.
The e-cigarette is comprised of an atomizer, a battery, a cartridge (sometimes with nicotine), and an LED light at the end to simulate burning. Cartridges are available in varying levels of nicotine strength, from high to zero, so an e-smoker can reduce the amount of nicotine they intake gradually. What makes the e-cigarette wonderful is the fact that it's not on fire, so it's very convenient to put down whenever you want to. An e-smoker is not obligated to smoking an entire cigarette even though they do not want to, so they actually end up smoking less than they normally would because having the e-cigarette out of their hand helps them forget about smoking.
In addition, e-cigarettes do not require an ashtray, since they are not on fire and do not produce ash. It is also less of a fire hazard, since e-smokers do not have to worry about waking up to themselves or their bed on fire just because they want to smoke in bed (often while watching TV).
Another reason to switch is due to the fact that e-cigarette cartridges are cheaper than a pack of tobacco cigarettes. One cartridge is the equivalent of a whole pack of tobacco cigarettes, depending on the smoking habit of the user. New users may not get as much use out of cartridges until they get used to them, because they treat them like a tobacco cigarette for a while until they realize they can actually set them down. Getting out of the mindset that it has to be held in the hand all the time is the most important thing to get away from, because the less you have it in your hand, the more likely you are to get occupied with other things (like life) and forget it's there at all.

The Enjoyment Of Cigarettes Is To Die For

Have you ever wondered exactly what it is that people get out of smoking tobacco? If you are a non-smoker, it is a question that you will probably never have an answer to. It is hard enough to answer even for a smoker. The enjoyment that they get from a cigarette can be so vague that they even question themselves what it does for them. It does not make them high like other drugs do, at least not in a way that they can actually feel. However, even though a smoker can not really feel the effects it has on their body, the nicotine that they inhale does promote subtle changes that satisfies a physical craving that is experienced by addicted smokers.

It could be said that besides the physical satisfaction derived from inhaling nicotine, they also get a sort of emotional satisfaction when they smoke. It perhaps comforts them in some way that a non-smoker could not understand. Perhaps they get the satisfaction akin to what a non-smoker would get from relaxing in a hot bath or enjoying a cup of coffee. It just feels good to relax and enjoy a smoke. Smokers try to achieve this sort of satisfaction from a cigarette sometimes twenty or more times a day after they have become addicted. It is a strange habit to say the least. With a drug addict of another kind, you can almost understand the attraction because a drug like heroine or cocaine can transport the user to a more euphoric state, but tobacco does not do that,

Whatever enjoyment that people derive from smoking tobacco, it is an enjoyment that they would die for, literally. Not that drugs like cocaine or heroine will not also kill the user after a long period of addiction. Smokers must admit that they are willing to die for their habit because so many of them do everyday. The diseases and illnesses they end up with all because of smoking cigarettes can not be denied. While there are many that eventually find a way to quit this nasty habit, there are millions more that never will They will go to there grave huffing for breath and puffing on that last smoke.

It is so difficult to comprehend why someone would sacrifice their good life all for the sake of inhaling smoke day after day. That is what they do. They wake up smoking, they go through their day smoking, and they go to bed smoking at night. They must have a cigarette when they get the urge for one or they can become terribly anxious and irritable in most cases. These are true signs of an addiction. The only hope a tobacco smoker has is if they realize soon enough that they must find a way to give up the habit. There are many approaches used for this and it is a shame when a person dies from smoking having never found one of them.