“BAT is market leader, and the commercial unit is sized according to a certain volume of legal sales. At a certain point, there can be resizing. You must resize your company for a lower volume, which means restructuring. As of January 2009, this is becoming more frequent within most companies, although, for the time being, BAT is not considering this,” Popa said.
BAT was market leader in June, with a 44.5 percent share in value, according to the Nielsen market research company.
According to the official, a new increase in excise taxes would take the level of local smuggling to the critical value of 30 percent of the total market, compared to 22.2 percent at present. The excise tax is to be raised to €64 per 1,000 cigarettes as of September, compared to the current €57.
The value of the local tobacco market is estimated to be an annual €2.5 billion. For the legal market, a consumption of some 36 billion cigarettes is expected, while total consumption is estimated at 42.5 billion cigarettes. BAT’s main competitors on the local market are Japan Tabacco International (JTI) and Philip Morris International (PMI).
