Imperial’s Strong Sector Performance
Imperial Brands has released its half year results which shows the strength in the market and commitment to continue the move away from tobacco products
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by Dave Cross
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Imperial’s profits are being hit by the Ukraine crisis, forcing it to stop sales in Russia but overall performance was underpinned by strong sales of myblu ecigs and Pulze heated tobacco products (rising 8.7% to a value of £101 million).
Imperial Brands Chief Executive Stefan Bomhard said: “We are now 18 months into our five-year strategy to build a more sustainable Imperial capable of consistent growth – and I am pleased with the progress we are making.
“These results provide further evidence that we have achieved the stabilisation of our core combustible business. During the first half of the year, we increased aggregate market share in the five priority markets which account for around 70 per cent of our operating profit, while maintaining pricing discipline. This strong performance is an outcome of our tighter performance management and disciplined investment in sales execution and brand building. Meanwhile, our more focused approach to our broader portfolio of markets is delivering a stronger performance from regions, such as Africa. In April, we delivered on our earlier commitment to exit Russia, with the orderly transfer of our business to local investors.
“In next generation products, consumers have given positive feedback on our recent trials, validating our new insights-driven approach. We will now roll out our Pulze and iD heated tobacco proposition to further European markets and, in US vape, we are extending our refreshed blu marketing proposition. We have also started a pilot in France for an all-new vapour device, the first new NGP product from our redesigned innovation pipeline.
“Our strategy is being supported by a comprehensive culture change programme, designed to embed more consumer-centric, collaborative and future-focused ways of working, across every level of the organisation.
“Our focus for the remainder of 2022 will be to invest further in our five priority markets and begin the roll-out of our NGP strategy. While these are uncertain times, as we move into 2023, we will have in place the capabilities and culture necessary to support the next phase of our strategy and deliver sustainable growth in shareholder value.”
Imperial Brands’ announcement follows news that Philip Morris launched a bid to buy Swedish Match. They both emphasise how consumer demand for reduced harm alternative nicotine products is driving massive change in a market that has resisted the best efforts of Tobacco Control for decades.
Photo Credit:
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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