Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/743340
28 tobaccoasia / Issue 5, 2016 November / December Alena Stepanichsheva, external communications manager, JTI in Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and Mongolia Courtesy of JTI Kazakhstan LLC Mongolia company set-up allowed JTI to not only introduce its international brands to Mongolia but also continue selling some of the brands formerly owned by Gallaher. "Apart from the classic JTI brands Winston and Mevius, we also sold Argymak Mongolia, Sobranie, Sov- ereign, LD, and State Line," she explained. Consumer loyalty keeps LD at the top Just like with Imperial Tobacco, all JTI-owned brands are imported without exception and the company does not currently maintain a manufacturing facility in Mongolia. Stepanichsheva said that LD currently was the company's best-selling brand in the country, which she attributed to the fact that it's been available for so many years and because Mongolian consumers tend to be rather brand-loyal. King size filtered ciga- rettes continue to be the preferred format ("The choice of non-filtered cigarettes in the market is very limited anyway."), she said, directly corroborating what Mongol To- bacco and Imperial Tobacco had already established. While Stepanichsheva declined to comment on JTI's current market share in Mongolia, she disclosed that she considered JTI's main competitors to be Mongol Tobacco, Philip Morris International (PMI), and Korea's KT&G. A hotly contested turf Although PMI and KT&G together with British American Tobacco are having a pres- ence in Mongolia, Tobacco Asia unfortunately was unsuccessful in securing interviews with them. Mongolia, that vast, land-locked country with its miniscule population may not have much influence in world politics and despite its reportedly tremendous but still largely untapped mineral resources play an insignificant role in global economics, but one thing seems clear: If the somewhat reluctant responses and thin data we gained from our inquiries are any indication, Mongolia is nevertheless a hotly contested turf among the multinationals. Meanwhile, Mongol Tobacco appears to lean back with a cushy lion's share of the market - and even has utilized only half of its production capacity.