After a peak the year before, retail volume sales remained at a high level and significantly superior to pre-pandemic levels in the second year of the pandemic in 2021, because of limited opportunities for legal and illegal cross-border sales due to temporarily closed borders and travel restrictions. The strong decline in cross-border traffic and home seclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic had a strong positive impact on cigarette sales in 2020, as many cigarette smokers could only purchase cigarettes locally.
Electronic alternatives in smoking, such as e-vapour products and heated tobacco, are registering decent growth, but on a still-limited level and with only a very limited impact on cigarette sales. Such devices are still seen mainly as a step towards quitting smoking completely, as opposed to a permanent alternative.
News highlights in the brand landscape in 2021 include Japan Tobacco discontinuing the long-standing, domestic brands Memphis Blue, Memphis White and Memphis Classic. Furthermore, also the discontinuation of the classic Dames brand in 2020 continued to impact the company’s shares in 2021.
While total cigarette consumption is going to continue decreasing due to increasing health awareness over the forecast period, illicit trade and cross-border sales will remain a major factor impacting retail sales. Illicit trade and cross-border sales are highly likely to increase again after their diminished role during the pandemic which is anticipated to lead to a significant drop in retail volume sales – especially in 2022.
Another significant tobacco tax increase will come into force in 2022 and, although no official announcement had been made by the end of the review period, further, annual tax increases are expected for the foreseeable future (with a potential break in hikes in 2023). Given the structure of the tobacco tax law, room for price variation is going to decrease further, depriving manufacturers from being able to factor in notable brand differentiation.
After several setbacks, an end to the COVID-19 pandemic had become foreseeable in Austria by the end of the review period and public life and consumer patterns are expected to return largely back to normal relatively quickly within 2022. The omicron variant is expected to lead to a problematic spike in infections early in the year but, afterwards, the virus is likely to turn into a more manageable threat.
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Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Cigarettes industry in Austria with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
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If you're in the Cigarettes industry in Austria, our research will help you to make informed, intelligent decisions; to recognise and profit from opportunity, or to offer resilience amidst market uncertainty.
Cigarettes
RETAIL SALES OF DUTY PAID CIGARETTES The definition of cigarettes for the purposes of this study is duty-paid, machine manufactured white-stick products. This does not exclude brands of cigarettes that do not use white paper but it is designed to exclude the volume of non-machine manufactured products such as bidis/beedis (India) and papirosy (Russia), and other smoking products made with tobacco but that either do not resemble cigarettes as recognised in the US or Europe, or those that are not machine manufactured. The exclusion of these products is intended to give a more accurate picture of the "true" market for cigarettes and cigars which has been distorted in official statistics and published reports because of the inclusion of hybrid products. NB Please note that due to its central importance and integration into the industry mainstream, Indonesia’s market data does include hand-rolled kreteks DUTY-FREE sales are excluded from retail sales, as are herbal cigarettes. ILLICIT TRADE CIGARETTES Not included in retail sales, but split out separately in volume terms only. Defined as non-duty paid cigarettes (includes smuggled & counterfeit/fake products combined). Legitimate cross-border sales are considered duty-paid. Sales arising from a foreign national purchasing cheaper cigarettes in bulk in a neighbouring country for personal use and exported back are attributed to the country where the purchase is made (e.g. bulk cigarette sales by British nationals in France are attributed to France).
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Cigarettes research and analysis database.
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