Imperial Tobacco said Paul Matthews is the new general manager of its Australasia region, filling the position left by Melvin Ruigrok, who took over this year as GM for the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Matthews moves to Australia from the US, where he was senior vice president of sales at Commonwealth-Altadis, a member of the Imperial Tobacco Group. Matthews has 20 years experience with the Group, including Mexico.
“Conditions are tough for the tobacco industry in Australia, but our recently released half-year results show that we continue to demonstrate resilience”, Matthews said in a statement. “Imperial Tobacco Australia has had lots of success in recent years, driven mostly by JPS, Australia’s fastest growing tobacco brand.”