Sampoerna to launch A International brand

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly-listed cigarette maker PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna will launch a new brand next month to tap into the growing market for low-nicotine cigarettes.

Sampoerna's brand manager, Surja S. Handoko, said yesterday the new brand, A International, would be launched in Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya.

"We expect to sell 16 million cigarettes a week. We will also sell the new cigarettes overseas, like in Malaysia," he said.

Handoko said his company would target urban men aged between 18 years and 35 years who usually smoked white cigarettes as the potential A International smokers.

A International will complement Sampoerna's light cigarette series like A Mild, A Mild Menthol, A King and A King Menthol.

Handoko said each pack of the new product would contain 20 cigarettes.

"This is the first clove cigarette pack, which contains 20 cigarettes after the new tax regulation issued on Feb. 28, 1997," he said.

The new tax on the retail sales of tobacco products became effective on April 1.

Handoko said each A International cigarette, which is categorized as a low tar and low nicotine cigarette, has a standard diameter of 7.9 millimeters.

He said they were 8.4 centimeters long and had 1.1 milligrams of nicotine and 1.5 milligrams of tar.

Sampoerna, which created A Mild in 1989, is facing growing competition from local and foreign cigarette makers in the low tar and low nicotine cigarette market.

Rival clove-blended light products include PT Djarum's LA Light and Bentoel's Star Mild. White cigarette makers have also launched low tar and low nicotine products including Ardath Light, Marlboro Light, Wismilak Light and Lucky Strike Light.

Cigarette production between 1991 and 1996 rose 6.7 percent a year. Over this period Indonesians smoked 2.7 cigarettes per person a day, lower than 4.7 in Malaysia, 5.6 in China, 7 in Britain, 8.6 in the United States 4.7 and 10.3 in Japan.

Handoko said Sampoerna paid Rp 1.28 trillion in tobacco tax in 1996, making it Indonesia's third biggest tobacco tax payer after Gudang Garam and Djarum.

Sampoerna recorded Rp 561.2 billion in net sales in the first quarter this year, up 25.74 percent on Rp 446.3 billion in the same period last year. (icn)