Cigarette shipment volume at Japan Tobacco International fell 5.4 per cent in the business quarter to 31 March, with most of the decline occurring in Russia and former Soviet republics, the company said.

Higher prices helped compensate for fewer product shipments. Adjusted operating profit rose 4.8 per cent to USD 1.02 billion (EUR 738 million) on sales that increased 1.2 per cent to USD 2.8 billion. Market share was unchanged to higher, the company said. Market-share increases included JTI key markets France, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Cigarette volume declined by 5.1 billion to 87.7 billion units in the three-month period. Three billion units of the drop occurred in JTI’s geographical region mostly comprised of countries of the former Soviet Union. Within the region, the volume decline in Russia was more than 12 per cent, JTI said. The decline as measured in shipments of key brands was 5.5 per cent, to 55.3 billion sticks from 58.5 billion in the first three months of last year.