UK: Imperial Tobacco records drop in annual revenue

Tobacco firm Imperial Tobacco has announced its preliminary results for the fiscal year ended 30 September 2014, posting a decline in total adjusted revenue of 6% to $6,576 million ($10,514 million).

The company, however, pointed to “underlying volumes of Growth Brands up 7%, driven by organic growth and brand migrations” and “strong performance in Growth Markets with underlying net revenue up 7%”.

Commenting on the results, Alison Cooper, Chief Executive, said "This has been a year of significant delivery by Imperial. We’ve strengthened our brands and market footprint, improved cash conversion to 91 per cent, reduced debt by £1 billion and delivered another 10 per cent dividend increase to shareholders. We’ve completed our stock optimisation programme and realised over £60 million of further savings through our cost optimisation programme. We’ve achieved what we set out to achieve, creating a stronger business in the process. Trading conditions remain tough in many territories but the actions we’ve taken to enhance the quality and sustainability of the business have put us in a stronger position to drive growth and create sustainable value for our shareholders”.

Source: Imperial Tobacco