Magazine: Promising start of the new year in tobacco retail

Last year tobacco retail’s revenue was HUF 535 billion, way below expectations. However, the start of 2015 was promising: in January 2015 Trafik.hu partners realised 12 percent higher sales than in January 2014.

It is also true that the level of sales was much lower than in December 2014. Cigarette products were losing market in January, RYO products expanded and cigarillo sales remained stable. BAT made progress in comparison with its performance in January 2014. Hungarian-owned Continental is the only bigger player in the market that started the year with a worse performance than last year. Imperial Tobacco strengthened its position, while Japan Tobacco repeated its last January performance in the first month of the new year. Market leader Philip Morris bettered its last January performance in all three product categories. Róna did exceptionally well in January 2015, their lower-priced cigarette product strategy seems to have worked out. Sales of non-tobacco products in tobacco shops show that it is worth paying attention to this category for tobacco shop owners! Offering a wider range of these products would create the chance for further sales growth.