German cigarette manufacturers have founded a new industry association, the Deutsche Zigarettenverband (DZV).

Following the exit by Philip Morris and the subsequent break-up of the former "Verband der Cigarettenindustrie" (VdC) in July 2006, manufacturers British American Tobacco Germany, Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken (subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco Group), JT International Germany, Heintz van Landewyck und Joh. Wilh. von Eicken announced on 14 March the establishment of the new association. The DZV is located in Berlin and represents 60 per cent of the German cigarette industry.
The DZV chairman is Titus Wouda Kuipers, general manager at Reemtsma, and the new secretary is Marianne Tritz, a politician with no previous links to the tobacco industry, who had been a member of parliament (Bundestag) for the Green party from 2002 to 2005. (pi)