Page 34 - TOB Magazine Jan/Feb 2013

78
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
By Ed O’Connor
The CDA Celebrates
With a Mission.
Keeping California in the tobacco business…
The California Distributors
Association (CDA) celebrated
the Association’s 50th
anniversary at the North Coast-located
Pelican Hill Resort October 24-26.
“The CDA exists to ensure a
viable future for the distribution and
manufacturing industries within the
State of California,” Arthur Berberian,
president of the California Distributors
Association, told attendees of the
CDA’s recent anniversary celebration.
“As an organization, we are committed
to protecting the rights of our member
businesses to manufacture, distribute
and sell products legally in the State
of California. Through our work,
we encourage healthy competition
benefitting both our businesses and our
customers.”
Evidence of the viability and
commitment referred to by Berberian
is the recent defeat of California’s
Proposition 29, which would have
imposed an additional tax of five cents
a cigarette, $1.00 per pack. The CDA,
in conjunction with member companies
and tobacco retailers statewide,
organized and mounted an aggressive
campaign moving the proposition from John A. Pérez; Speaker of the California Assembly,
with Arthur Berberian, CDA’s President and President of Zander-Greg