Imperial Tobacco expecting 2% rise in trade

Lambert & Butler cigarettes maker Imperial Tobacco today said expects its sales for the first half of the year to rise by about 2% as it said trading for its financial year was in line with its targets.

Imperial, which is also the maker of West and Gauloises, said its cigarette volumes declined 1 percent in its half-year to end-March due to a shift in UK trade buying towards the second half of its year from the first half.

The group said Spain remains a challenging market due to a duty increase in December, a ban on smoking in public places and the on-going weak economy.

Imperial has suffered from falling cigarette volumes in the economic downturn but has offset this by price rises, on-going cost savings and growth in its fine-cut loose tobacco as it awaits a pickup in some of its key tobacco markets.