Tobacco Asia

58 tobaccoasia / Issue 4, 2018 September / October "We never hesitate to invest in order to sustain the growth of the Star group and luckily we have a highly experienced c.e.o. advising and working together with a young, talented and energetic team to make all of these projects happen," Çalık ob- serves. Star Corporation presently has 65 employ- ees worldwide, but this number is estimated to at least triple within the next couple of years as the various manufacturing projects are going to kick off one after another. Meanwhile, NTM supply firm TSAL posi- tions itself as a "modern and market-oriented company with a passion in the tobacco industry," according to Alper Çetin, the outfit's machinery sales supervisor. "We have joint venture agree- ments with our manufacturing partners, furnish- ing them with our own designs and technical li- brary so they can produce the goods which we then market." With those manufacturers mostly located in China, Turkey, and South Korea, great emphasis is put on ensuring that the various prod- ucts adhere to the best possible quality standards, with TSAL's portfolio comprising anything from cigarette and tipping papers to plug wraps, foils, films, filter rods and tow, adhesives, and new and refurbished machinery. "In order to serve SMEs, we are in a posi- tion to supply mixed containers of NTMs," elaborates TSAL's NTM sales supervisor, Af- saneh Ghorbani. Regarding filter rods, she says that the company is well aware that the choice of rods can considerably affect the taste of ciga- rettes. Therefore, high technology is deployed in producing the rods to assure stable quality, a measure that according to Ghorbani "is the main reason for our sustained growth in filter sales." In terms of second-hand machinery, TSAL's sales have likewise increased significantly since the establishment of the company's own engineer- ing center. "Customers can visit our engineering center at any time, inspect the equipment and make up their minds afterwards. We are proud to be a transparent company." However, Ghorbani also concedes that TSAL has experienced some declines in BOPP and tear tape sales in the past couple of years, which she attributes to the fact that customers have taken to sourcing them lo- cally. "Customers generally prefer to purchase their BOPP and tear tape supplies locally because of [shorter] lead times and cost efficiency." Consistently good growth for SAI As far as SAI is concerned, sales across practi- cally all of its tobacco categories have seen rather positive year-on-year increases in recent years. The only product that has stagnated is DIET. The other end of the spectrum has seen sales of whole Dr. Iqbal Lambat: A Veritable Tobacco Industry Icon Star Agritech's current c.e.o. and president of the Star Corporation group of companies, Dr. Iqbal Lambat, looks back at a long-spanning career. The Swiss citizen holds a number of prestigious degrees including a triple master's degree in finance, marketing, and economics earned from Webster University Geneva. In 1989, already well on his career path, he gained a doctorate in international finance from Business School Lausanne. After initial employments with Piaget/Baume & Mercier as well as Dow Chemical Europe, Dr. Lambat joined PMI in Lausanne as business develop- ment manager, preparing feasibility studies and economic analyses on a variety of food and tobacco related projects in Scandinavia, the Middle East, and Africa. As vice president of strategic planning and business development for RJRI in Geneva, he subsequently was responsible for leading the company's expansion into emerging markets for both RJR tobaccos and Nabisco food products before moving to Kazakhstan to serve as RJR Nabisco Central Asia's vice president and c.e.o. Returning to Switzerland in 1994, Dr. Lambat assumed the position of vice president and c.f.o. for emerging markets at RJRI Geneva. In 1996, RJRI by then having become more commonly known as Japan Tobacco International, he was promoted to senior vice president of worldwide strategic management, a position he held until the year 2000. He subsequent- ly joined Germany's Reemtsma as executive vice president for group strat- egy and corporate development, reporting directly to the board of directors. In 2002, he assisted the Reemtsma board in the company's trade sale and merger with Imperial Tobacco Group. By 2005, Dr. Lambat had launched his own company, Lambat & Associates, filling a role as strategy and diversification advisor providing senior-level consul- tancy in the FMCG sector with a strong emphasis on emerging markets. Some major projects included assisting Tchibo Holdings Germany in its sale of the Davidoff cigarette trademark rights to Imperial Tobacco, formulating and imple- menting for Oettinger Switzerland the market entry into India for Davidoff cigars, advising KT&G Korea on strategic entry options for Turkey and the EU, and assisting Groupe Sipromad Madagascar in fully integrated tobacco operations from tobacco agronomy thru to cigarette manufacturing for the domestic market. In 2008, Dr. Lambat was instrumental in launching Star Tobacco Inter- national (STI) in Turkey, being appointed c.e.o. only a year later, a position he holds until present. With the recent rebranding of STI into Star Agritech International, which in addition to tobacco brought with it a product expansion into other agricultural commodities, Dr. Lambat also became president of Star Corporation. And the rest, as they say, is history. The first mock-ups of Star Corporation's pipe brand, New World Pipes (Star Corporation)

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