6 June 2014
Imperial Tobacco’s Response to Misleading Claims

In response to the article in “The Australian” today stating that Labor’s Plain Packaging policy has failed, anti-tobacco lobbyists including Mike Daube have misleadingly claimed that the Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Tobacco, Alison Cooper, said markets have declined by 2-3% since plain packaging came in.

The statement made by our CEO specifically referring to Australia, reflected the initial 6 month period only of plain packaging. For clarity, the statement was:

As I’m looking at Asia Pacific, I should also mention Australia, we’ve had the first six months of the plain pack environment in Australia. We’ve seen the market decline roughly 2% to 3%, so maybe not as bad as we might have anticipated.

The figures provided were correct at the time they were given. Across the full year, however, the figures changed considerably with a significant reversal of the decline.

Backgroud: Please refer to attached document.

Media_Release__In_response_to_incorrect_claims_6_June_2014.doc