Star Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:STSI) has hired Roger Grogman, former Corporate Vice President of Marketing for the McLane Company, Inc., on an exclusive basis to consult with the company on marketing programs for its very low-TSNA dissolvable smokeless products, Ariva® and Stonewall®. McLane Company, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, is the largest distribution company in the convenience store market in the United States. Mr. Grogman has extensive experience in marketing program development. His responsibilities at McLane included management and oversight of research, customer relationship and advertising initiatives, as well as development and execution of the company’s marketing communication platform. Mr. Grogman joined McLane in 1991 after an eighteen-year tenure in national marketing with the Southland Corporation.
Paul L. Perito, Star’s Chairman, President and COO commented that the company believes Mr. Grogman’s thoroughgoing knowledge of multiple product categories and business channels will provide significant value to the growth and expansion of the Ariva® and Stonewall® brands. “Roger’s experience should complement nicely the inroads we have made in developing distribution with regional and national chains like Rite Aid, 7-Eleven, Food Lion and Smoker Friendly. In addition, though, we look forward to leveraging his expertise to enhance our efforts to communicate with adult consumers about the unique opportunity that very low-TSNA dissolvable smokeless tobacco offers to dependent smokers.”
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company has tried, whenever possible, to identify these forward-looking statements using words such as "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "expects", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions. These statements reflect the Company's current beliefs and are based upon information currently available to it. Accordingly, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such statements. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include, without limitation, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, particularly in the smokeless tobacco area, the uncertainties inherent in the progress of scientific research, the Company's ability to raise additional capital in the future necessary to maintain its business, potential disputes concerning the Company's intellectual property, risks associated with litigation regarding such intellectual property, potential delays in obtaining any necessary government approvals of the Company's low-TSNA tobacco products, market acceptance of the Company's new smokeless tobacco products, competition from companies with greater resources than the Company, the Company's decision not to join the Master Settlement Agreement ("MSA"), the effect of state statutes adopted under the MSA, and the Company's dependence on key employees and on its strategic relationships with Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation in light of its combination with RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Inc. The impact of potential litigation, if initiated against or by individual states that have adopted the MSA, could be materially adverse to the Company.
See additional discussion under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, as filed with the SEC on March 17, 2008, and other factors detailed from time to time in the Company's other filings with the SEC, available at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or advise upon any such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
About Star Scientific
Star Scientific is a technology-oriented tobacco company with a toxin reduction mission. It is engaged in the development of dissolvable smokeless tobacco products that deliver fewer carcinogenic toxins (principally tobacco specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs), through the utilization of the innovative StarCured® tobacco curing technology, and in sublicensing that technology to others. Star Scientific has a Corporate and Sales Office in Petersburg, VA, an Executive, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs office in Bethesda, MD, and manufacturing and tobacco processing facilities in Chase City, VA and in Petersburg, VA.
See Star’s website at: http://www.starscientific.com
Contacts:
Sara Troy Machir
Vice President,
Communications & Investor Relations
(301) 654-8300
smachir@starscientific.com
