Country Overview
Key Facts
Number of Employees: Approximately 800
Main Brands:
Marlboro, Assos, Philip Morris, Virginia Slims, Old Navy, Muratti, Chesterfield, L&M, Next
Welcome to Papastratos, Philip Morris International’s (PMI) affiliate in Greece. We are the largest tobacco company in Greece and produce many well-known cigarette brands, including Marlboro as well as local brands such as Assos, President, and Old Navy. In 2003, PMI acquired Papastratos and today we employ more than 800 people in our manufacturing and administrative facilities.
In May 2009, we inaugurated our new factory in Aspropyrgos representing a 100 million euro investment. We now have one of the most modern PMI manufacturing sites in Europe. We also have a tobacco warehouse facility in Agrinio and regional sales offices in Thessaloniki, Patras and Iraklio in Crete.
Papastratos has an active charitable contributions program and supports numerous programs throughout the country. One of our priorities is to support organizations that focus on helping families who face severe poverty problems in the local community. We also sponsor local cultural and artistic activities in the communities where our employees live and work.
Smoking and Health
Tobacco products, including cigarettes, are dangerous and addictive. There is overwhelming medical and scientific evidence that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other serious diseases.
Addiction
All tobacco products are addictive. It can be very difficult to quit smoking, but this should not deter smokers who want to quit from trying to do so.
Secondhand Smoke
Public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke from cigarettes causes serious diseases in non-smokers, including lung cancer and heart disease. We believe the public health conclusions on secondhand smoke are sufficient to support smoking restrictions in public places.
Effective Regulation
Philip Morris International (PMI) supports comprehensive regulation of tobacco products based on the principle of harm reduction.
To be effective, tobacco regulatory policy must be evidence-based, apply to all tobacco products, and should take into account the views of all legitimate stakeholders including public health authorities, government finance authorities, tobacco manufacturers, and other members of the tobacco supply chain. Regulatory policy must consider the potential to trigger adverse consequences which undermine public health objectives, such as increasing the demand for illicit cigarettes. While we support comprehensive, effective tobacco regulation, we do not support regulation that prevents adults from buying and using tobacco products or that imposes unnecessary impediments to the operation of the legitimate tobacco market. In that regard, we oppose measures such as plain packaging, point of sale display bans, total bans on communications to adult consumers, and bans on the use of all ingredients in tobacco products.