Categories
· Business (Tobacco)
non-USA, by Country
· UK
Organizations
· JTI
· ITY
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(Adds further comment from JT's UK chief.)
Jump to full article: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, 2009-11-11
Author: -By Michael Carolan, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9278; michael.carolan@dowjones.com
Intro: Japan Tobacco Inc.'s (2914.TO) U.K. business is closing the gap on market leader Imperial Tobacco PLC (IMT.LN) and will retain its recent market share gains, despite pushing up prices at the end of this month, JT's U.K. managing director said Wednesday.
Daniel Torras told reporters at a briefing in London that the company had increased its U.K. cigarette market share to 40.8% in September, up 1.8 percentage points on a year earlier. Imperial Tobacco's share meanwhile fell 1.5 percentage points in the same period to 42.3%, he said.
"Since Oct. 2008, we've seen very dramatic share growth," he said, "we've had share growth in every single segment."
Torras said he was confident these gains can be retained despite the company's planned price increases on Nov. 24. "We don't expect any share loss," he said.
He said the company's momentum in the U.K. allowed it to take a lead with price increases rather than following Imperial's pricing action.
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