New Zealand - lobby group of small retailers formed to protest tobacco price hike..

May 24, 2010 - A lobby group of small retailers protesting the Government's tobacco price hike is receiving public relations support from Imperial Tobacco, the tobacco giant told a select committee last week. The Association of Community Retailers (ACR), set up late last month, had earlier rejected suggestions it was backed by tobacco cash and said it was entirely funded from its members. One of the ACR's coordinators, Denielle Boulieris, told another blogger, Rory McKinnon, earlier this month that the association does not have a relationship with tobacco companies.

On Wednesday, April 28thThe the New Zealand Parliament passed a law to raise the excise tax on cigarettes and tobacco over each of the next three years, which at the end of that period, is expected to increase revenue by NZ$205 million (149,076,006 USD) annually. (New Zealand - increase in tobacco excise forced through Parliament by the Government..)

But Imperial Tobacco's New Zealand sales and marketing director, Tony Meirs, last week told a Maori Affairs select committee the company was providing the ACR with public relations resources through Omeka Public Relations. Mr Meirs told the select committee the company wanted to support retailers in speaking out about regulations that would damage their business viability, according to a transcript provided to Mr McKinnon. "This is our way of helping those retailers protect their business against unnecessary regulations that will be ineffective. We're helping them to develop a voice," Mr Meirs said.

But Imperial Tobacco's New Zealand sales and marketing director, Tony Meirs, last week told a Maori Affairs select committee the company was providing the ACR with public relations resources through Omeka Public Relations. Mr Meirs told the select committee the company wanted to support retailers in speaking out about regulations that would damage their business viability, according to a transcript provided to Mr McKinnon. "This is our way of helping those retailers protect their business against unnecessary regulations that will be ineffective. We're helping them to develop a voice," Mr Meirs said. (Imperial Tobacco Address Maori Affairs Committee, Press Release: Imperial Tobacco, 5/15/2010)

ACR founding member Richard Green, who ran a tobacconist business in Palmerston North, told NZPA earlier this month the ACR grew out of the former Stay Displays coalition of retailers, a coalition that formed to fight a proposed ban on displaying tobacco products for sale.

New Zealand's tobacco industry provided by ASH NZ.

Reference: Tobacco giant backs retail protest, New Zealand Press Association (NZPA), stuff.co.nz, 5/23/2010

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