Falling cigarette volumes are hardly a new phenomenon; the tobacco industry has been in steady decline for years. But despite British American Tobacco’s best efforts to put the emphasis of yesterday’s full-year results on the “transformational” acquisition of Reynolds American, the market chose to focus on the decline in organic volumes and sent the shares more than 2 per cent lower.
Although the maker of Dunhill and Lucky Strike reported a 3.2 per cent increase in cigarette volumes, this was driven by the £41.8 billion acquisition of Reynolds in July and on an organic, or underlying, basis its volumes fell by 2.6 per cent. This was better than the wider market decline of about 3.5 per cent, showing that BAT won market share, but the