AACS in Canada

Jeff Rogut
CEO AACS

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As global issues continue to potentially affect our industry it is comforting to know that global resources may be harnessed to provide actual experience on various government and regulatory matters.
I had the opportunity recently to travel to Canada and be hosted by the Canadian Convenience Store Association with the aim of briefing their retailers on the Australian tobacco plain packaging experiment that many claim is working, without any factual basis for this. Canada has announced plans to follow in Australia’s footsteps on this and I met with a number of retailers and manufacturers to relay what the actual, not theoretical, results and unintended consequences of this legislation have been over the past 4 years since we have had plain packaging.
Some of the articles and media are below for you interest.
Also attached are some photos of stores that I was also able to visit while in various cities.
Canada is a terrific country, with excellent people and the President of the Association, Alex Scholten does a great job for his members and their industry. Hopefully the Canadian government will consult widely and will pay heed to their retailers and other industry feedback as opposed to the actions our government took, or did not take, prior to the forced changes on tobacco packaging.