Cash-and-carry wholesaler Booker Group, citing the extension of the tobacco-product display ban to small retailers, said sales of those products fell 5.6 per cent in the six months to 9 Sept, Reuters said.

Booker is the country’s largest cash-and carry wholesaler, a business in which customers settle on the spot and transport the goods themselves. Display bans for cigarettes and other tobacco products have been banned in small retail shops since April. They were removed from large retail outlets in 2012.