Revenue and Profits up at Imperial

Imperial Brands reported an adjusted operating profit of £3.89 billion ($4.78 billion) for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up 3.9 percent from fiscal 2022 when the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations and Imperial’s exit from Russia were excluded. Adjusted net revenue rose 1.4 percent to £8.01 billion

Imperial CEO Stefan Bomhard expressed satisfaction with the results.

“Three years into Imperial’s transformation, our investments in consumer capabilities, changes to the way we work, and a new performance culture are translating into stronger, more sustainable operational and financial outcomes,” he said in a statement.

“In combustible tobacco, improving brand equity and investment in our salesforce capabilities has led to the third consecutive year of stable or growing aggregate market share in the five priority markets, which account for 70 percent of our operating profit. At the same time, we have offset structural volume declines with strong pricing in all key markets.

“In next-generation products, our challenger approach, which combines partnership-based innovation with disciplined market entry, is delivering positive results. We now have credible propositions across all categories—vape, heated tobacco and oral nicotine. Following recent launches, we now offer consumers potentially reduced-harm choices in more than 20 European markets as well as the United States. This step-up in investment in Europe has driven an acceleration in net revenue growth.

“Underpinning this broad-based progress is our continued transformation, which includes new innovation hubs in Liverpool, Hamburg and Shenzhen, modernization of legacy systems, and investments in upskilling our leaders.”