South Africa’s largest cigarette manufacturer, British American Tobacco, says it is deliberately not seeking to expand its business in the country.
”We’re not growing our business in South Africa, we’re not getting more people to smoke,” BAT’s corporate affairs director Simon Millson told talk show host Chris Gibbon on radio station Cape Talk on Wednesday.
”Clearly we can’t do that. Government policy is quite clear on this. It wants to drive down the number of cigarettes sold in this country.
”What we’re looking to do is derive more value from that business, the products that we sell, and derive more value out of the business supply chain.”
BAT was looking making this chain more efficient, he said. BAT has been trying to reposition itself as a ”socially responsible” business in the wake of the 1999 tobacco law amendments that outlawed tobacco advertising and smoking in indoor
public places.
The health department has threatened to make the laws even tougher, after complaints that the smoking prohibition was not effective.
Millson said on Wednesday the advertising ban had not had any real effect. The visibility of BAT products was now ”completely diminished”, but there had been no noticeable change in sales.
What did drive down consumption was the increasing tax burden on cigarettes, which at the moment was half the price of a packet. Nonetheless BAT was still able to deliver a return to shareholders, he said.
”It is a very profitable business, there’s no doubt about that.” – Sapa