Pakistan(National Times)- US smokers have been swapping out brands such as Altria\u2019s Marlboro and British American Tobacco\u2019s Newport, which have been raising prices for years, for less expensive brands as high inflation and interest rates stretch their wallets. BAT\u2019s US cigarette volumes fell 10.1% last year in part due to this shift, it reported on Thursday, while Altria has also been losing market share. Those companies hope the trend is temporary and will recede as economic pressures ease. But Japan Tobacco International expects pricier brands to continue losing ground even as affordability improves, finance chief Vassilis Vovos told Reuters. \u201cThis is a\u2026 hard trend and we see it continuing over time,\u201d he said, adding steep price increases will continue to push consumers to trade down \u2013 a trend visible in many markets where big price gaps emerge. Tobacco giants such as Altria and BAT have relied on increasing prices to support revenue growth in markets like the United States, the world\u2019s second largest tobacco market after China, as falling smoking rates have put the industry\u2019s volumes into structural decline. JTI, which is part of Japanese conglomerate Japan Tobacco, expects the value and super value segment to account for 42% of the market by 2027, up from around 32% in 2022, Vovos said in an interview the day after the company reported full-year results. JTI completed the acquisition of U.S. tobacco company Vector Group last year, which pushed its share of the super value segment to 40% by the fourth quarter of 2024, its results presentation showed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan(National Times)- US smokers have been swapping out brands such as Altria\u2019s Marlboro and British American Tobacco\u2019s Newport, which have been raising prices for years, for less expensive brands as high inflation and interest rates stretch their wallets. BAT\u2019s US cigarette volumes fell 10.1% last year in part due to this shift, it reported on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n