Imperial Tobacco’s tobacco-products volume during the three months to the end of December (Imperial’s Q1) was down by 11 percent on that of the three months to the end of December 2012, according to an interim management statement issued this morning.
Tobacco products here include cigarettes, fine-cut tobacco, cigars and snus.
Tobacco net revenue, meanwhile, was increased by 1 percent to £1,564 million.
“We continue to implement our strategy, strengthening the sustainability and quality of our sales growth,” said CEO Alison Cooper.
“We are focusing on driving our growth brands and targeting opportunities in our growth markets, complemented by resilience in our returns markets.
“The quality of our business continues to improve, with encouraging results from our growth brands which have outperformed the market.
“The quarter has also seen significant progress with our stock optimization program, reducing trade stocks and improving our flexibility and speed to market.
“These results are in line with our expectations.
“We will continue driving our strategy this year, stepping up our investments behind quality growth.
“There is further stock optimization work to be done, whilst our cost optimization program is on track and will contribute toward our investment plans.
“A reasonable working assumption for the full year continues to be for modest growth in EPS at constant exchange rates and for at least a 10 percent increase in dividends.”