Imperial Tobacco, fourth largest international tobacco company and leading OTP company is the last major company which could be a viable acquisition target for its peers. With sales centred in developed markets Imperial is seeking to streamline its ...

British American Tobacco (BAT) is the world’s second largest international tobacco company with dominance in Latin America and Australasia, and presence in each tobacco category....

PMI, the largest of the international tobacco companies and with the strongest brand portfolio, including brands such as Marlboro and L&M, is responding to the challenge of falling cigarettes volumes in all regions by investing heavily in brand ...

In 2015, one in every 12 cigarettes lit up in the world was illicit, down from one in 10 in 2014, valued collectively at around US$40 billion, with an equivalent tax loss to global governments. Illicit trade is a phenomenon that impacts tobacco ...

Roll-your-own (RYO) tobacco can be traced back to the beginning of the Philippines’ tobacco culture. The Spanish brought tobacco to the Philippines and as the industry grew, the older population simply rolled tobacco leaves to smoke. Pipe smoking in ...

RYO tobacco registered the fastest retail volume sales growth of 3% in 2015. The popularity of RYO tobacco has grown and more consumers see smoking tobacco as a more natural option with fewer harmful additives compared with cigarettes. Also, many ...

Smoking tobacco has been used since ancient times in the form of hookah or sheesha in India. The practice of smoking hookah, which is consumed using a single or multi-stemmed water pipe (also known as a hookah), has been part of Indian culture for ...

Smoking tobacco remained an insignificant product area in Pakistan at the end of the review period. While smoking tobacco is used by consumers, sales are mainly limited to informal channels. In rural areas, hookah pipes remain popular, with smokers ...

In 2015, smoking tobacco recorded volume growth of 7.3%, which was higher than the 6.8% volume CAGR recorded over the review period and shows steady performance of this category. The reason for this growth appears to be the ever-growing demand from ...

Shisha smoking is as essential part of social interaction in the Middle East and is akin to visiting friends for coffee in the West. It is a way of life where people spend time with friends, meet new people and also make business deals. For certain ...

Argentina is a country with little tradition in smoking tobacco, which is reflected in its accounting for only 5% of the total value of tobacco sales in 2015. Whilst RYO consumption is focused on low-income consumers, mainly in the northern provinces...

Smoking tobacco benefited from two trends towards the end of the review period. Pipe tobacco benefited from the growing popularity of shisha/water pipes among young consumers, with these pipes having a fashionable image and smoked using tobacco in a ...

Smoking tobacco as a whole recorded retail volume growth of 4% in 2015. This was mainly down to an ongoing strong performance from RYO tobacco, which registered a 12% volume sales increase. RYO tobacco performed very well over the review period ...

Pipe tobacco and RYO tobacco were very niche product types, with rather limited consumer bases in Slovenia prior to the 2008 economic crisis. But the price gap between RYO tobacco and cigarettes and weak consumer purchasing power saw a leap in ...

Smoking tobacco in Uzbekistan was represented only by pipe tobacco in 2015. In Uzbekistan, smoking pipes or shishas are considered luxury products by tobacco consumers; therefore, their availability was limited mainly to bars and restaurants during ...

Retail volume sales of smoking tobacco declined by 6% in 2015, to reach 13 tonnes. Whilst RYO tobacco was able to maintain 1% volume growth, thanks to its affordability when compared with several brands of cigarettes, pipe tobacco showed a volume ...

2015 saw continued debate about the legalisation of cannabis in New Zealand, with this continuing in 2016. Currently, the possession and growing of cannabis are illegal. However, a number of activist groups have emerged, particularly advocating the ...

Smoking the water pipes known as shisha remains relatively popular in Algeria and the country has the highest overall value and volume sales of pipe tobacco of any country in North Africa, with the exception of Egypt. Shisha smoking retains a strong ...

The 2009 increase in federal excise tax on RYO tobacco from US$1.10 per pound to US$24.78 per pound has had a significant effect on smoking tobacco. The steady growth rate that RYO tobacco had experienced over the previous decade was suddenly brought...

Smokers continued to switch to RYO tobacco in Austria in 2015 due to rising cigarette prices even though the price increase in smoking tobacco was even stronger. To hurt the attractiveness of RYO tobacco as a cheaper alternative, the Austrian ...