Yesmoke Tobacco S.p.A.

Yesmoke under Attack – but Some Have Connections

• Politics
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The police at the entrance of Yesmoke’s cigarette factory. For the “blitz”, four military vans and a dozen police cars of the Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza were mobilized.

It was the morning of December 6th. Some 50 policemen in riot gear arrived at Yesmoke’s cigarette manufacturing plant in Settimo Torinese: Carabinieri, Guardia di Finanza and Digos (special police units) along with an assortment of officials. They were there to affix seals to the machinery and block the manufacturing processes of the factory, a factory that is working 3 shifts a day, 365 days a year. Following Yesmoke’s categorical refusal to interrupt its production, that evening the decision was made to suspend the use of force and defer all decisions to a future discussion table.

The dispute, which has been going on for over a year, originated from a request of the AAMS – Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato – State Monopoly Administration – for a security deposit in the form of a bank guarantee of 2 million 400 thousand euro, corresponding to the value of the excise levied on the maximum quantity of finished product that can be contained in the Company’s fiscal deposit. Yesmoke refused to provide the deposit, considering the sum an undue subtraction of funds needed for the development of the business and the creation of new jobs.

Those with Connections

The case of Logista S.p.A. indicates that the AAMS has a power of discretion in granting waivers from paying the tax deposit. In 2004, British American Tobacco, following the privatization of the Ente Tabacchi Italian, purchased Etinera, the state-owned company that at the time of the Italian monopoly, handled all the distribution of cigarettes on the Italian territory. BAT sold the company, in the same year, to the Spanish company Logista.

Logista S.p.A., which holds the monopoly on the distribution of cigarettes in Italy, enjoys the prerogatives reserved State companies.

Logista, after leaving more than 11 hundred workers in the middle of the street (check out the site of the ex-workers' Committee) “as a reward” was exempted by the AAMS from making the deposit amounting to more than 100 million euro, therefore responsibility of the European Union, keeping the exemption that had been granted to Etinera as a State company. Etinera’s “state” exemption continues unfairly still today benefiting the Spanish Logista. In the case of Yesmoke, which is not only a company that manufactures but also distributes its products, therefore a Logista competitor, the AAMS chooses not to avail itself of its presumed discretionary power and responds negatively to the exemption requests of the Italian company.

And how did the AAMS handle this issue with MIT (Manifattura Italiana Tabacchi) of Chiaravalle, that makes Linda cigarettes, a historic Italian brand? In 2004, the company, following the privatization of the ETI, was first sold to BAT, and then in 2005 sold by BAT to a consortium of Italian investors. Today, MIT, which did not take part in the case before the European Court of Justice for the abolition of the minimum price and market liberalization, after completing the production contract for BAT finds itself with almost all of its 90 workers laid off. Does MIT, too, benefit from the “State” exemption?

Yesmoke plans to take all legal steps to clear up this shameful situation, so that whoever granted undue exemptions will be identified and prosecuted, along with whoever now does not intervene to eliminate them, knowing they are there.

Yesmoke’s Opposition

Yesmoke’s refusal of to provide the guarantee derives from the fact that the same resources can be destined to the development of the company, its purchase of new machinery and the creation of new employment. A growing company should not be penalized or, worse yet, closed. If anything, it should be encouraged by exemptions and incentives, to uphold the surprising success of a product “Made in Italy” in a market with incalculable prospects.

Yesmoke is working three shifts a day, seven days a week , it has 60 employees and 20 more are expected from January 1st. It is ordering new machinery and planning new factories to meet the constantly growing orders from all over the world. What's more, Yesmoke is also trying to save the laid-off workers of MIT in Chiaravalle proposing that the company manufactures Yesmoke cigarettes.

Trying to close a company like Yesmoke is an act of extreme violence and supreme stupidity, because it means wanting at all costs to throw workers and their families into the middle of the street and to crush the hopes of a job for many others. The objective is merely to assert and impose disparity of treatment favoring foreign companies and those who are doing business with them. It is an act of unprecedented degeneration that should be stopped in an exemplary manner.

Fortunately, the Region, the Province, the Prefecture, the police, town councilors together with the mayor of Settimo Torinese, Aldo Corgiat, have shown a willingness to solve the problem, respecting the law, in an effort to promote employment and development. So, Yesmoke is hoping for a rapid and happy outcome of the dispute, avoiding useless “bloodshed”.

Further information

• D.M. 22-2-1999 n. 67 – Regolamento completo recante norme concernenti l'istituzione ed il regime dei depositi fiscali e la circolazione nonché le attività di accertamento e di controllo delle imposte riguardanti i tabacchi lavorati. Pubblicato nella Gazz. Uff. 22 marzo 1999, n. 67.
• Web site of of the ex-workers' Committee – Relazione presentata alla Commissione Finanze l'11 agosto 2007, che denuncia il trattamento di favore di cui beneficia la Logista S.p.A., a danno della concorrenza, nella gestione dei magazzini di vendita dei generi di monopolio di Stato.
• Chiudete la Yesmoke di Settimo. Il magazzino non è assicurato – Repubblica – 7 dicember 2011
• Yesmoke resta aperta, duro confronto con l'Aams – La Nuova Voce – 7 dicember 2011
• Yesmoke – Il Prefetto evita il blocco dell'attività – La Stampa – 7 dicember 2011
• Aams Vs Yesmoke – La sbracata finale – 1 january 2011 – Non è la prima volta che si tenta di chiudere la Yesmoke

• December 8th, 2011
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