BRISTOL (dpa-AFX) - Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (ITYBY.PK, IMT.L) Wednesday said tobacco net revenues for the first quarter ended December 31, 2011 declined 1 percent, while underlying growth was 3 percent from the prior year, reflecting strong prices and mix. The British tobacco company also confirmed that overall financial position and operational performance for fiscal 2012 is in line with its board's expectations. Alison Cooper, chief executive of the company said, 'Our continued focus on realizing opportunities from our total tobacco portfolio supported by innovation and price optimization has delivered underlying tobacco net revenue growth of 3 percent in the first quarter.' In an interim management statement, the company said its underlying stick equivalent volumes declined 1 percent and reported stick equivalent volumes were down 7 percent from the prior year. According to the company, 3 percent of the decline was due to the ongoing impact of international sanction compliance in Syria and double-digit market volume declines in Spain. A further three percent of the decrease related to trade stock levels around a price increase in the U.S and distributor destocking in Ukraine, the company added. In Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, West and JPS, the company's key strategic brands, combined stick equivalent volumes improved 3 percent and net revenues increased 10 percent from the preceding year. The company experienced growth in these brands in cigarette in emerging markets and fine cut tobacco in the EU. Imperial Tobacco stated that in the UK and Germany, its innovative new products and gains in value portfolio continued to support its strong positions in cigarette and fine cut tobacco. In Spain, market stick equivalent double digit volume declines continued through the quarter. But the company currently expects the rate of decline to slow in the remainder of the year. In non-EU markets, the company delivered good growth in key emerging markets, particularly in Asia-Pacific and Africa and Middle East. In the U.S, the market remains highly competitive and the first-quarter volumes were impacted by trade buying patterns around its October price increase, the company said. 'Delivering the planned acceleration in our underlying sales momentum whilst continuing to realize cost and cash opportunities remain our priorities such that we are well placed to create further value for our shareholders this year,' Cooper added. Separately, Imperial Tobacco announced various changes to its board and other senior management appointments, including the retirement of Pierre Jungels as a non-executive director and the appointment of Mark Williamson as senior independent director. Malcolm Wyman has been appointed chairman of the Audit Committee. IMT.L is currently trading at 2,301 pence, up 31 pence or 1.37 percent, on a volume of 999 thousand shares on the LSE. In the US, the company's shares ended on Tuesday at $71.60.
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