Cigarette manufacturers huff and puff over packaging clampdown
British American Tobacco, manufacturer of cigarette brands including Lucky Stripe and Kent, has teamed up with rivals Imperial Tobacco, maker of Davidoff and Gauloises Blondes, in an attempt to stub out government plans for mandatory plain packaging.
Ministers are investigating legislation which would require all cigarettes to be sold in featureless brown packets, a measure the industry claims would be “Christmas” for counterfeiters.
It is intended to reduce the appeal of cigarettes to children but this is refuted by both BAT and Imperial who claim that it will merely serve to make cigarettes more accessible by reducing the .
Health Minister Andrew Lansley said: “The evidence is clear that packaging helps recruit smokers, so it makes sense to have less attractive packaging.”