Tobacco Product Regulation: Arnold André Trusts in Zetes
Germany’s largest cigar manufacturer Arnold André meets the requirements of the Tobacco Product Regulation for cigars, which will apply from May 2024, with the TPD solution from Zetes. From the overall Zetes system, Arnold André will use the “Primary Repository” for its approximately 50 million annual product units. This is a database containing all relevant information for the traceability of tobacco, which is transmitted from there to the EU-wide “Second Repository”. Zetes is one of seven independent third-party providers certified by the EU for this purpose.
“In our search for a suitable IT partner to comply with the second phase of the TPD Directive, Zetes convinced us with its wide-ranging expertise in terms of software and hardware. As an internationally active company based in Germany, we were also looking for a German provider with whom we also harmonize well on a human level,” explains Thomas Detert, who is responsible for organization and data processing at Arnold André.
The Tobacco Product Directive (TPD for short) 2014/40/ EU officially came into force on May 20, 2019. It regulates the trade of tobacco products within the EU and contains rules on their manufacture, packaging and sale. The aim is to prevent counterfeiting and smuggling, improve conditions in the single market for tobacco and ensure a high standard of health for European citizens. The next phase of the TPD will come into force on May 20, 2024. At that time, all other provisions applicable to other tobacco products such as cigars, cigarillos, shisha tobacco, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco will be covered by the regulation.
A key objective of the Tobacco Products Directive is the complete traceability of all tobacco products along the supply chain. Accordingly, all companies involved in the tobacco supply chain are obliged to establish an electronic track and trace at product level. This means that all movements of goods and the associated transactions or cash flows from the manufacturer via wholesalers to retailers and specialist retailers must be recorded, documented and reported to the EU.
Against this background, manufacturers and importers of tobacco products are obliged to enter into data storage contracts with an independent third-party provider who operates a so-called “primary repository”. This is a database containing all relevant information for the traceability of tobacco, which is transmitted from there to the EU-wide “Second Repository”. Zetes is one of seven independent third-party providers certified by the EU.
The system can record all product movements between incoming and outgoing goods. All activities such as picking, aggregating and disaggregating are supervised and documented. Exceptions can be mapped, as can shipping and reloading, and handling returns, it is said.
Arnold André, based in Bünde, Germany, has been a leader in the cigar and cigarillo market for more than 200 years and is Germany’s largest cigar manufacturer. In addition to the ones in Germany, Arnold André operates its own sites in France, Portugal and the Dominican Republic and employs 850 people worldwide.
