“The 9.5% increase in cigarette volume both in Greece and outside Greece, the maintenance of roll-your-own cigarettes at roughly the same levels as the previous period despite challenges in the sector, the increases in factory prices—most of which took place during the second half of 2023—and the positive exchange rate differences amounting to 7.1 million euros, compared to negative exchange rate differences of 2.4 million in the corresponding half of last year, contributed to Karelias’ positive results in the first half of 2024.”
As the company’s management emphasized, the group’s performance during the first half of 2024 is considered particularly satisfactory, since the increase in gross turnover by 13.9% (increase in net turnover by 12.7%) compared to the same period of the previous year, contributed to the improvement of net profits before taxes by 39%.
According to the company, the trend of cigarette sales in the first months of the second half of 2024 continues at almost similar upward rates to the first half, both within Greece and in international markets. Regarding the geographical distribution of sales, the company estimates that the upward trend will continue in most Western European and Balkan markets, with a significant increase in share in Spain and France, while in Croatia a collaboration with a new importer-distributor was recently started with encouraging initial results.
Sales in the North African markets are also expected to develop positively, while in the remaining regions no significant differences are expected from the first half. In the Greek market, the increase in cigarette volume amounted to 12.4%, while the increase in tobacco reached 3.7% compared to the first half of 2023, with the company’s share in the consolidated category of cigarettes and heat not burn products reaching 19.23% in the first half of 2024 compared to 18.73% in the first half of 2023.
In international markets, the increase in cigarette volume amounted to 8.8%, while in rolling tobacco there was a 5.4% lag compared to last year, which is largely due to the fact that in many of the important markets where the company operates, the increase in excise duty on rolling tobacco was disproportionately higher than that on cigarettes.
Karelias’ sales in the EU countries -except Bulgaria- (+4.6%), in the Balkan markets including Bulgaria (+11.4%), and in Africa (+14%), moved particularly positively, fully compensating for reduced sales in Eastern Europe (-12.5%), and Asia as a whole (-8%), including the Duty Free market of Turkey. The excellent performance of the listed company’s brands in Bulgaria stands out, where in the consolidated category of cigarettes and heat not burn products it achieved a market share of 25.3% compared to 23.42% in the first half of 2023.
