Recent reports say that as a result of the
dispute between Philip Morris and Omega Company, several cigarettes – Marlboro,
Parliament, Chesterfield
and several other brands may soon disappear from Georgian market. All these
cigarettes are the brands produced by tobacco maker and multinational importer
company Philip Morris, which announced its decision about terminating its
cooperation with its distributor in Georgia, Omega a few days ago.
“Omega”
authorities abstain from commenting on the issue. As the Business Press News
agency was reported by the company staff, the Omega management had vacations
until January 14th and no comment would be made until they were back
in office.
The
agency is still waiting for a comment about this dispute by the representatives
of the Philip Morris office in Tbilisi
as well.
“As we’ve
learnt, for the past two weeks even the staff of the company is in confusion,
because they know nothing about what will happen. They say they go to work as
usual, but they don’t know if they will keep their jobs. The Omega cigarette factory,
which used to pack about ten cigarette brands, remains closed so far.”
It should
be noted that Omega Group also ran the cigarette factory (OGT Factory), which
was closed in November 2015. Earlier on November 12th, the BPN was
told by the HR department of the factory that they started reorganization and
after some period the factory would resume to operate.
As for
the growth of prices on Philip Morris cigarette brands in Georgia,
reportedly, it was the result of the decisions taken by markets independently.
The market owners, who knew that they would soon run out of these cigarette
brands, decided to benefit from this situation by making high prices on
specific cigarettes.
Tamar
Korkotashvili
www.bpn.ge
