BAT on Track To Deliver Fiscal Year Guidance

British American Tobacco said it is on track to deliver its fiscal year guidance, with 2024 investment driving positive momentum toward long-term sustainable growth

“Our second-half performance acceleration is driven by the phasing of new categories innovation, the benefits of investment in U.S. commercial actions and the unwind of wholesaler inventory movements,” said BAT CEO Tadeu Marroco in a statement.

“In October, I was delighted to host our capital markets day together with our management team in our Innovation Centre in Southampton. This event demonstrated how BAT’s science, innovation, breadth of capabilities and people can combine to achieve a smokeless world and deliver long-term sustainable value for all our stakeholders. We continue to make progress towards our ambition of becoming a predominantly smokeless business by 2035.

“Our ‘quality growth’ imperative is delivering higher returns on more targeted investments across all three new categories, and that prioritization and focus is already transforming our business in Europe. We are making further progress increasing profitability across new categories, and I am particularly pleased with the improvements in heated products and modern oral.

“In the U.S., I am encouraged that our investment approach, taken over the last 18 months to strengthen our business, is working, despite a challenging macro-economic backdrop. Through our commercial actions, we have invested in our portfolio and improved our executional capabilities. With these previously announced plans now completed, we can prioritize driving sharper execution and opening incremental white space, related to modern oral.

“We continue to prioritize shaping a sustainable future and call for more appropriate regulation and enforcement of new categories, including vapor in the U.S. and Canada.

“We are making good progress and while there is still more to do, I believe that the choices we have made and the actions we are taking through this investment year are the right way forward for BAT.”