Tobacco Company Begins Direct Sales

L O U I S V I L L E, Ky., Oct. 13 -- Brown & Williamson Tobacco hopes to dofor cigarettes what L.L. Bean has done for khakis.

In what is believed to be the first time a major tobaccomanufacturer has moved into direct sales of cigarettes, B&W isbeginning to sell its less-popular brands through catalogs as aconvenience to smokers.

The intent is to maintain customer loyalty to its second-tierbrands, many of which get squeezed out by tough competition and arenot regularly stocked by retailers. Critics of B&W’s plans accusethe company of devising a creative way to undermine regulationsaimed at protecting children from the marketing of tobaccoproducts.

Like it or not, adult smokers in nine states will soon be ableto order B&W brands, such as Misty and Capri, by phone, fax ormail, and eventually over the Internet. The company said Thursdaythat it formed a subsidiary, BWT Direct LLC, devoted to catalogsales.

Thousands of catalogs will be mailed by the end of next week.

“Most retailers limit the cigarette brands and brand stylesthey stock, displaying only those with a significant marketshare,” said John Heironimus, president of BWT Direct and vicepresident of its parent company. “The result has been that manyloyal, longtime customers of some of B&W’s traditional productshave difficulty locating those products.”

But tobacco critics are suspicious of the venture, saying itseems aimed at building new customers. Anti-smoking advocates areparticularly concerned about protecting children from direct sales.

“What they are doing with catalog sales is opening up apotential whole new way to market their product,” said AhronLeichtman, executive director of Citizens for a Tobacco-FreeSociety.

“And while the industry says it is putting in place a strategyto prevent those sales to minors, in the past they have proven tobe ineffective in prohibiting those illegal sales,” Leichtmanadded.

Karen Brotzge, BWT Direct’s executive vice president, said thecompany will only send catalogs to smokers whose ages have beenverified and that it will only sell to people 21 or older. She saidthe company has hired a database firm to verify that customers areadults.