BAT aims for new markets as smuggling dents growth

BRITISH American Tobacco (BAT) yesterday said a rise in cigarette smuggling and the wider decline in smoking across the developed world continue to press down on growth.

Group sales by volume fell three per cent during 2010, though price rises more than offset the decline to deliver a five per cent revenue rise to £14.9bn, BAT said in its annual report.

New hope for cig vending machines

Fresh hope has been raised that the cigarette vending machine ban could be stopped by legal action.

Machine provider Sinclair Collis, part of Imperial Tobacco, has been granted leave to appeal the High Court's decision to reject its judicial review of the ban.

A hearing at the Court of Appeal is scheduled for 7 or 8 March and due to last one and a half days.

Imperial Tobacco senior UK corporate and legal affairs manager Colin Wragg said: “We are delighted that we have managed to get the appeal heard promptly and we will communicate further developments as they occur.”