Imperial Brands Disappointed With Six-Month Results

Imperial Brands’ adjusted tobacco and next-generation product (NGP) revenue for the six months ending March 31, 2020, was down 1.7 percent from the same period last year.

The company’s total adjusted operating profit also fell 9.3 percent. On a reported basis, revenue rose 2 percent while total operating profit fell 19.6 percent.

“While we delivered against our revised expectations, we are disappointed with these results, and we remain fully focused on all opportunities to strengthen performance,” said Dominic Brisby and Joerg Biebernick, joint interim chief executives for Imperial Brands.

“We would like to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment in these challenging times. Their support has been outstanding, and we continue to prioritize their health, safety and well-being.

“Our enhanced focus on tobacco has driven stronger in-market execution and an improved share performance, with gains in most of our priority markets. We have reduced our NGP spend following the poor returns on investment last year, and this, together with recent weaknesses in the vapor category, has resulted in lower NGP revenue.

“Overall, Covid-19 has so far had only a small impact on trading, but we expect this to be more pronounced in the second half due to continued pressures on our duty-free and travel retail business, changes in consumption patterns including downtrading and a reversal of some first-half inventory build.”