British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Berhad looks at 2024 as the year it will focusing on growing its New Category business and driving sustainable value growth within the combustibles category.
Nedal Salem, Managing Director of BAT Malaysia, said, “We firmly believe that tobacco harm reduction strategies are crucial to reducing the health impact of our business. We will focus on growing the market share of Vuse, the number one global vaping brand, which represents the Group’s efforts to offer reduced-risk alternatives to adult smokers.”
“At the same time, we will continue maintaining the growth trajectory of our brands within our premium, aspirational premium and value-for-money segments. This is in tandem with the Group’s strategic aim to deliver combustible value growth, to support our portfolio of reduced-risk products.”
During this year’s AGM, the Group also shared its views on the upcoming the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024. “BAT Malaysia believes the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 is a step in the right direction towards regulating the industry. Nevertheless, the Group reiterates that any regulations introduced must be sensible and evidence-based for all stakeholders to ensure that it can be enforced effectively and deliver its intended objectives, without fuelling the growth of the tobacco or vapour black market.”
The tobacco black market incidence in Malaysia remained persistently high at 55.6% for 2023. With the measures announced by the Government during the tabling of the Budget 2024, BAT Malaysia believes that the Government will further strengthen efforts to combat the tobacco black market coupled with recent proactive enforcement initiatives to help recover tax revenue leakages of approximately RM5 billion annually.
For FY2023, the group recorded a revenue of RM2.3 billion compared with RM2.6 billion for the previous financial year due to continued downtrading and underlined the importance of the Group’s introduction of a dynamic Value-For-Money (VFM) product in Luckies. Profit from operations stood at RM281 million compared with RM407 million a year ago.
