[Intl-tobacco] BAT planning theme stores in Europe

[Robert Weissman]

Smoking campaigners' fury over BAT theme stores

by GRAEME BEATON
Source: The [London, UK] Express, Saturday, 10/28/00
Tobacco company BAT is set to open a chain of stores in Europe featuring

Americana stamped with the famous bull's eye logo of its Lucky Strike
cigarettes.

It said yesterday it was seeking outside financing and an operator for
Trans
Urban Trading Co, a retail chain expected to open its first outlets next
year.

The stores, featuring "futuristic" fixtures and aimed at
twentysomethings, are
BAT's latest attempt to buck sluggish cigarette sales.

They will stock leather jackets, Fifties-style radios and food mixers,
and food
items such as Hershey's chocolate and maple syrup. The shops will be an
extension of the Lucky Strike Catalogue, a BAT mail order business
successful
in Europe for the past five years.

Anti-smoking activists claimed the Trans Urban stores would be another
attempt
to market cigarettes to young people. Derek Yach of the World Trade
Organisation's Tobacco-Free Initiative said: "There's no protection for
children and teens with this kind of brand stretching, whether it's a
cafe or a
store."