British American Tobacco (BAT) announced that revenue was up 4.4 per cent and New Categories revenue grew by 26.6 per cent.

In its half-year report to 30 June, BAT reported adjusted revenues of GBP 13.44 billion, up 2.8 per cent year-on-year, while profits from operations jumped 2.7 per cent to GBP 6.02 billion. Revenues were lifted by a 26.6 per cent jump in the new categories division to GBP 1.66 billion in the period. BAT said that revenue from Non-Combustibles is now 16.6 per cent of Group revenue, up 180 bps vs 2022.

Chief Executive Tadeu Marroco said: “Having been in my new role for 10 weeks, I’m pleased with the resilient performance of BAT in the first half of 2023 and the renewed sense of energy across the organisation. It is a challenging external environment. High inflation and slower global growth are impacting consumers and business. Yet our revenue, profit from operations and earnings are all up. (…) I remain confident that New Categories will deliver a positive contribution in 2024. However, we do not expect contribution growth to be linear, as levels of investment will align with the phasing of our big innovation platforms. While more focus is required in the U.S., our sequential performance improvement in the critical premium U.S. combustibles business since January 2023 is encouraging.”

Profit from operations on a reported basis was up 61.4 per cent at GBP 5.94 billion, with reported operating margin up 1,560 bps to 44.2 per cent – as prior period impacted by charges related to Russia/Belarus, the U.S. DOJ/OFAC provision and Quantum.

“These results are thanks to the hard work by BAT people around the world. To help ensure we continue to deliver, the recently announced Management Board structure is designed to enhance our strategic capabilities and further embed the collaborative and inclusive culture I want to see everywhere across the Group.”