The British tobacco manufacturer Imperial Brands has seen its turnover grow in the past financial year. The maker of cigarette brands such as Gauloises, Winston and Davidoff and Rizla rolling papers did suffer a lot from an American ban on selling flavored e-cigarettes.
Imperial Brands recorded a turnover of 31.6 billion pounds. That was £ 30 billion a year earlier. Revenues are higher than those in the know foreseen, since Imperial Brands tightened its sales forecast in September. Profit before tax dropped from more than 1.8 billion pounds to almost 1.7 billion pounds.
Quite recently, Imperial Brands came out with a profit alarm, due to disappointing sales of vaping items after a series of deaths associated with the use of such e-cigarettes. Vapen, or fumes, is an alternative to smoking in which a nicotine-containing liquid is evaporated. After the earnings alarm, the share price of Imperial fell sharply.
The departing top woman Alison Cooper, for which no replacement has yet been found, spoke of a “challenging year” in which the results did not come out as anticipated. Imperial Brands also announced that Thérèse Esperdy, currently an independent board member, will be the new chairman of the company. That role is comparable to a chairman of the supervisory board.