Japan Tobacco

A few years have passed since the former Cooperative Greek Tobacco Industry, also known as SEKAP, was “sinking” under the weight of huge accumulated debts, following the fate of its main shareholder, ATE Bank, while the revelation of the smuggling case had preceded it, when the discovery of a ship in Edipsos with cigarettes of the company served as the end of the thread.

The event was organized by JTI Hellas (Japan Tobacco International), in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Greece

For the fourth consecutive year, Japan Tobacco International is supporting the InvestGR Forum as a strategic sponsor, and will participate in the 6th InvestGR Forum 2023, "Greece, Staying the Course," on October 3 and 4, at the Athens Conservatoire.

The chairman of Japan Tobacco Inc (JT), Mutsuo Iwai, praised the leadership of the Greek government for promoting an investment-friendly environment during a recent visit to Tokyo by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a JT announcement said on Wednesday.

SEKAP announced on Thursday that production of the products of new owner Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has started, just two-and-a-half months after the Greek tobacco company's takeover.

JTI has upgraded the SEKAP factory at Xanthi in Thrace, which has begun producing Camel and Winston Giga buckets destined for daily export to European Union member-states.

The operation of Greek tobacco company SEKAP will continue following the definitive agreement for the acquisition of parent company Donskoy Tabak by Japan Tobacco International (JTI).

Japan Tobacco, the world's second biggest multinational in the sector, is the new owner of Greek tobacco company SEKAP, after the $1.6 billion deal Russian-Greek entrepreneur Ivan Savvidis reached with the 33 percent state-owned Japanese firm for the sale of Donskoy Tabak, which bought SEKAP in 2013.

The Greek state missed out on total taxes of 2.535 billion euros over the previous seven years (from 2008 to 2014) due to cigarette smuggling, according to an annual European survey on illegal tobacco trading by KPMG.

Last year alone cigarette smuggling grew by 2.8 percentage points of the market to account for 20.6 percent of domestic tobacco transactions.

SENTA - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic put into operation the new super slim cigarette making machine at the Japan Tobacco International (JTI) plant in Senta on Wednesday, and stressed that Serbia will continue to fight against illegal tobacco trade.

The Romania-Republic of Moldova joint customs operations led to a decrease in the cigarette smuggling in north-eastern Romania, the Customs General Directorate (DGV) informed on Wednesday. A Novel Research study released on Tuesday had showed that the cigarette black market has been on a rising trend in July 2014, reaching the highest level in the last three years.