Tobacco Asia

Volume 18, Number 4

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tobaccoasia 27 At British American Tobacco, we are looking more closely at the science surrounding tobacco harm reduction. If you are interested in joining our team of scientists working in this area, visit www.bat-science.com for more information. www.bat-science.com Group Research & Development, Southampton and Cambridge "Previously our main market was the domestic market, but we are plan- ning to increase our overseas markets as well, starting in the countries of ASEAN, before expanding to other regions of the world." In 2013, TTM exported five brands of cigarettes, totaling 35.64 million sticks or THB32.18 million. This was an increase in sales volume and value of 44% and 116.84% respectively from 2012's numbers of 24.07 million sticks and THB14.84 million. "Cigarettes meant for export are not like most other goods," said Dr. Suttiniphapunt. "Even the production process for cigarettes meant to be ex- ported is different from the process for cigarettes, which will be sold domesti- cally, as different countries have different regulations and standards. We need to fully understand these regulations before trying to enter each market. Thus, while we plan on increasing our international markets, we will start with those countries whose regulations are not too complicated." Even though its performance has remained consistently good, TTM is actively strategizing for future growth. In addition to increasing international markets, TTM also has plans to increase its loose tobacco production and is looking at new products such as the slim or superslim cigarettes with women smokers in mind, and is continuously researching new technologies that could be implemented in its cigarette production. While the word 'monopoly' in its name might lead to the assumption that TTM has no competitors, in reality that is not the case. Dr. Suttiniphapunt said, "We actually have quite a few competitors, such as imported cigarettes like Marlboro from PMI and Winston from JTI." According to Dr. Suttinip- hapunt, foreign-brand imported cigarettes count for 20-30% of the market in Thailand. Imported cigarettes are not limited to well-known international names only but also from other Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philip- Huge and ugly graphic health warnings now "decorate" every cigarette pack in Thailand

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