Magazine: Less black market tobacco

Once again, in the 3rd quarter of 2015 tobacco retail did better than expected, with sales improving in both value and volume. Like-for-like cigarette sales grew for the first time in years, after a long period of stagnation or decline. Rolling tobacco sales augmented by a hefty 12 percent, which suggests that the black market is shrinking. From Trafik.hu partners the performance of market leader Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco has been improving continuously and the last quarter was no different, while the market shares of smaller players such as Continental and Róna were at a standstill. As for non-tobacco products sold by National Tobacco Shops, their share from total sales has exceeded 8 percent by now. In value these categories are worth almost HUF 50 billion a year, as the annual sales of tobacco shops is estimated to be HUF 580-600 billion in 2015. The National Tobacco Shop Supplier Kft. (ODBE) will only start providing full-scale services from 17 November (only some services will be available from the originally scheduled 1 November). At the moment it seems there will be no distribution problems resulting from the transition. Until then manufacturers supply tobacco shops with products using their own distribution networks.