Financial Times

CTC top performers recognised
Tobacco not for youth, only adults -CTC official
Ceylon Tobacco Company’s Marketing “Front Line Conference” was held recently at the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo. The Front Line Conference is an annual forum, where the company rewards and recognises the best performers for the past year and shares the challenges and expectations for the current year. Five outstanding performers received awards at this conference for their achievements during 2005, according to a CTC statement.

Last year was an outstanding one for the company; with a commendable achievement in total volume and value. One of the key factors was the successful containment of unauthorised and illicit products by the government which helped the company to enhance the government revenue by a significant amount during the year, it said. Muditha Adikari was awarded the best Trade Marketing Executive (TME) of the year whilst Indika Perera was 1st Runner up and Suresh Kumaradas 2nd Runner up. Sanka Jayasundara was recognised as the Up & Coming TME while Asanga Fernando received a Special Award for his achievements in 2005. Janaka Kiridena Trade Marketing Manager of CTC said, “Our achievements in 2005 have raised the bar for us in 2006.

We believe strongly that tobacco should never be marketed to youth. It should only be marketed to adult smokers, in an appropriate way that takes account of its health risks. Our consumers – adult smokers – drive everything we do. We invest effort and care in understanding their preferences, and we know that just as adults make informed choices about smoking, adult smokers make informed choices about brands. We agree there should be different rules about tobacco marketing – and that’s part of the challenge our marketers are trained to meet.”

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