Figures for the first nine months from British American Tobacco were not that bad, certainly not bad enough, on the face of it, to prompt a 3 per cent slide in the price.
Consumption across the industry is falling by low single-digit figures each year, as people either give up or are prompted by higher tax to switch to illicit products.
BAT reported a 1 per cent decline in volumes to the end of September, representing the actual number of cigarettes sold. Revenues, stripping out currency factors, rose by 2.4 per cent as prices were increased and some consumers switched to the company’s five big brands, which are earmarked for heavy promotion.
By contrast, the fall in volumes over the first nine months of last