The Future OfTobacco Brands

[Marzcanna]

 

Honestly for many many years i always told everyone the real reason why cannabis was illegal was because if it had to be completely legal than tobacco sells would go down.

Im always doing research on cannabis and today I came across a very interesting article title. It read:

"The UK's largest tobacco firm says it sees cannabis as part of its future

as it tries to move away from selling traditional cigarettes"

WAIT WHAAAAT?! A tobacco company tryna move away from selling...well tobacco?? I wonder what the packaging would look like

The article further reads:

British American Tobacco said it wanted to "accelerate" its transformation by reducing the health impact of its products.

In March, BAT took a stake in Canadian medical cannabis maker Organigram.

It also signed a deal to research a new range of adult cannabis products, initially focused on cannabidiol (CBD).

"As we think about our portfolio for the future, certainly beyond nicotine products are interesting for us as another wave of future growth," BAT executive Kingsley Wheaton told Radio 4's Today Programme.

Mr Wheaton, BAT's chief marketing officer, said it saw cannabis related products as part of its future growth. The firm is currently trialling a CBD vape product in Manchester.

"I think [CBD vaping] is part of the future, but the present challenge is reduced harm in tobacco and nicotine alternatives, encouraging people to switch."

• "Marlboro maker could stop selling cigarettes in UK"

Releasing its half year results to the end of June, the tobacco giant reported an 8.1% rise in revenues to £12.18bn.

It said more than a third of its UK revenues now come from vaping brands such as Vuse, Velo and glo.

The tobacco giant also saw its fastest gain in new customers, with users of non-combustible products - such as vapes - jumping 2.6 million to 16.1 million.

 

'The balance has decisively shifted'

Big tobacco companies have tried to ride two horses in their communications to investors over the past decade. They have drawn attention to their efforts to get away from nasty cigarettes, while at the same time pointing to the big dividend payments the sales of those cigarettes support.

That balance has now decisively shifted - in the companies' communications anyway - to the former. First Philip Morris International and now BAT have gone all out to stress their move into new types of less harmful products - vaping, heated rather than combusted tobacco, and, in BAT's case, cannabis.

Progress is being made. BAT's results for the six months to the end of June show that sales of "new category" products grew by half to £942m. That is still a fraction of its total £12bn in revenue.

Cigarette volumes - BAT sold 316 billion cigarettes in the six-month period - actually grew slightly thanks to a recovery in demand in emerging markets.

Even though traditional tobacco remains by far its biggest business, the company says it is committed to change, pledging that "ESG (environmental, social and governance issues) is at the core of our strategy."

It is hardly surprising that BAT wants to drape itself in the ESG flag. A recent piece of research by the accountancy firm PWC noted the rapid influx of shareholder money into ESG funds, ones that will only invest in companies with the right ethical credentials. It thinks that their combined value will be greater than all other types of funds within three years.

BAT's share price has roughly halved in the past four years, from £55 to £27. The ability to tempt some of those ESG funds back into owning BAT shares might to do something to restore that flagging price.

 

Tobacco sales recover

Despite its commitment to healthier choices, BAT said sales of its cigarettes recovered in some developing nations following the end of coronavirus lockdowns when sales were banned in some countries.

Sales of brands like Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike and Rothmans rose in the first half of the year in countries such as Brazil, Turkey and Pakistan.

It said overall revenue from its combustibles division - cigarettes and heated tobacco products - fell 3% to £10.5bn.

William Ryder, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that there is still some way to go if the tobacco giant is to meet its target of £5bn in revenues from nicotine alternatives by 2025.

"For now... BAT is still dependent on cigarettes... Traditional tobacco products still pay the dividend, and will do for some time," he said.

 

 

REF: Article Source

 

 

 

[Chris Jay]

Funny enough I was at a zimbabwean tobacco dealer yesterday afternoon talking about of all things,,,,,  animals. Borrowed a cool book though, The gentle Art of Smoking by Alfred Dunhill. Its a super read, history of pipes, cigarettes, snuff and culture. Wish cannabis was in the book, however I can imagine the reasons it was not. You must not forget big babylon business is not stupid, they have been involved in the cannabis industry before it was legal, I think most tobacco houses have patents already in the cannabis sphere. 

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vaping, heated rather than combusted tobacco, and, in BAT's case, cannabis.

Lets say we all believe big business has been behind the "war on drugs", I think a good question to ask would be why are we seeing a vaping ban worldwide, USA, South America, Europe and SA to follow in about 5 years? 

CNN

USA

India





 

[The Grass Baas]

Super fascinating actually. Just to add....I think there's more than just Big tobacco companies that are worried about cannabis or the Hemp plant. Big Pharma is scared of the plant, Big Oil companies are scared and Im pretty sure there were stories of cotton being direct competition aswell. Pretty sure it was also banned because it was seen as only black folks used it. Trying to supress them. I think Mary Jane has a tough past but she will prevail.

[Chris Jay]

@The Grass Baas, I dont think they are scared, they are on point and ready to take the market come hell or high water.

Big pharma been growing zol in the UK for 15 years already, making sativaX. Read up on GW Pharmaceuticals, hidden facility somewhere in UK. Meanwhile parents are being arressted coming into UK travelling with a few grams of RSO from Canada. Stories easy to find. If you want to go down the rabbit whole, read deep into GW, its scary what they are capable of and what they are doing. I think if you look at "big business", they are all involved in some way already and possibly for a long a time. 

I have posted it somewhere here and it was part of evidence from the Dagga Couples Trial of the Plant, but cannabis was clearly a threat western culture and made "natives lazy". South Africa started the trouble and it was more to do with racist policies rather than the plant or business, but I rate cotton and the textile industry was under threat: 

 

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One point I disagree with you is that it was not America who exported its drug policies. Funny enough through research it was South Africa that started drug policies based on race. The story in my hazy head is in the early 1900s, I think 1911 one of our government officials went to the League of Nations ( now UN ) to propose drug policy changed, solely based on race under the guise of Drug Prevention. Funny enough South Africa, after implementing numerous laws passed the Weeds Act in 1937 ( USA Marijuana Tax Act ) which gave our police more power over private property.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Chris Jay