JT Says Three Employees Still Unaccounted For

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 03/24/2011

Japan Tobacco Inc said today that it had been unable to confirm the safety of three JT group employees following the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku District on March 11. The company expressed its deepest sympathies to all those who had been affected and said it would continue to search for news of its so-far unaccounted-for employees. It has established a Crisis Management Headquarters, headed by its CEO, which is undertaking recovery support, the collection of information and the evaluation of countermeasures. Beyond the human suffering, JT reported that the product supply situation was difficult in places. "Since the earthquake, our Japanese domestic tobacco business has been doing everything we can to secure product supply," it said in a note posted on its website. "However, transportation of our products has been affected by the current fuel shortages and deteriorating distribution conditions." "As a result, in certain places in Japan, our products are now out of stock." The transportation of semi-finished products and non-tobacco-materials is also being affected by the distribution problems. "Also, some of our suppliers of non-tobacco materials are being affected by damaged facilities and scheduled blackouts that are hampering stable supply for the time being," the note added. "Further, we are projecting that the manufacture of some of our products will be disrupted, given the required recovery timeframe for some of the factories of our group which have been damaged." "In light of the circumstances, we are now exploring alternative sourcing of semi-finished products and non-tobacco materials, and evaluating our stable product supply system to minimize the effect of the earthquake." "Further announcements will be made as soon as decisions on these measures have been made." JT reported that while its Morioka, Sendai, Mito and Utsunomiya sales centers were functioning again, three offices that reported to these centers, Kamaishi. Ishinomaki and Iwaki, were not functioning. The company has now set up a temporary order processing center in Tokyo in lieu of the Sendai order processing center, which is not functioning because of damage to its building. Although building damage has been repaired at the distribution depots in Aomori, Morioka and Utsunomiya that belong to TS Network, a JT group company, two depots located in Sendai and Mito are not functioning. And all of the depots are being affected by the deteriorating distribution situation. The Kita-Kanto cigarette manufacturing factory located in Utsunomiya and the Koriyama cigarette manufacturing factory are not functioning because of damage to their buildings and equipment. Repairs at the Kita-Kanto factory are being affected by scheduled blackouts. And the Tomobe factory located in Kasama, which produces expanded tobacco, and the East-Japan Regional Leaf Tobacco Headquarters located in Sukagawa, a producer of cut rolled expanded stems, are not operating, also because of damage to buildings and equipment. Additional expanded tobacco is being provided by the Hiratsuka factory while the company looks for alternative sources outside Japan. Sourcing of cut rolled expanded stems from outside Japan is also being planned. The Tagajo Factory which belongs to the group company, Japan Filter Technology, cannot be used following the earthquake; so arrangements are being made to shift production to the company's other factories located in Hamura, Tokyo; Tsubata, Ishikawa; and Tagawa, Fukuoka. Further, while there is no damage, scheduled blackouts are affecting the operation of the Hiratsuka factory and the Japan Filter Technology's Hamura factory. However, though the Fuji Flavor group company is located in an area affected by blackouts, its operations have not been disrupted because it has its own electrical power facility. JTI said an announcement would be made immediately after the damage to the JT group was more clearly known and if its impact on its performance was projected to be significant. Enditem