10.2 The manufacturing industry in Australia
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The Australian tobacco industry is a subset of the global industry. All three tobacco companies which operate in Australia (British American Tobacco Australia—BATA, Philip Morris International (Australia)—PMA and Imperial Tobacco Australia—ITA) are wholly owned subsidiaries of their overseas parent. Although the Australian tobacco market is considered to be mature3 and per capita consumption is in decline, the tobacco companies remain highly profitable entities and business is strong: according to tobacco industry estimates, the equivalent of 1100 packs of 25 cigarettes are sold in Australia every minute.11
Overseas ownership of the Australian companies means that no tobacco company is currently listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and that the availability of information specific to local company operations is limited. BAT offers a website[5] with some Australian emphasis, but PMI and the ITG provide little in the way of Australian data. It is probable that the tobacco companies prefer not to expose their activities to any more scrutiny than is strictly required by law. Most of the information used in the following sections discussing the Australian tobacco companies and their operating environment has been sourced from literature published by various trade and marketing associations, and cannot be independently verified.[6] Given the immense impact of the tobacco industry on the health of Australians, this lack of accountability and disclosure is completely inconsistent with government priorities to reduce tobacco use and could easily be remedied by legislation.
Reflecting international trends, the companies operating in Australia have undergone consolidation. Only two of the three companies, PMA and BATA, own local manufacturing facilities. Brands sold by ITA, which entered the market following the merger of WD & HO Wills and Rothmans in 1999 are marketed under licence by BATA. In addition, a small number of companies import speciality products and brands. Sections 10.3–10.6 provide further detail on the size and composition of the Australian tobacco industry.
[5] See: http://www.bata.com.au/
[6] Market and industry analysts IBISWorld (http://www.ibisworld.com.au/default.aspx) and Euromonitor (http://www.euromonitor.com/Tobacco) produce reports on the tobacco companies in Australia which are available for purchase. The authors of this and other chapters in this book have not made use of these subscription-only resources due to copyright constraints. Some tertiary institution libraries may provide access to these publications.
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