{"id":50024,"date":"2025-06-05T18:40:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T10:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/?p=50024"},"modified":"2025-06-05T18:40:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T10:40:19","slug":"bat-2025-first-half-performance-spoiler-velo-soars-and-new-heated-tobacco-products-will-be-the-deciding-factor-in-the-second-half-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/a\/50024","title":{"rendered":"BAT 2025 first-half performance spoiler: Velo soars, and new heated tobacco products will be the deciding factor in the second half of the year!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 3, 2025, BAT released the \" <\/span><\/span>2025 First Half Pre-Close Trading Update\" announcement<\/span><\/span>\u00a0, which showed that the performance of core businesses was differentiated, new product categories became the growth engine, and the second half of the year focused on high-end new products and market expansion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Full-year performance forecast: Revenue and profit growth both rebound<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Revenue guidance raised<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
    \n
    Revenue is expected to grow by 1-2% in fiscal 2025<\/span>\u00a0(at constant exchange rates), a slight increase from the previous expectation of \"about 1%\".<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n
  • Profit focus shifts to the second half of the year<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
    \n
    Adjusted operating profit growth is expected to be 1.5%-2.5%<\/span>\u00a0, and performance growth will mainly depend on the launch of new categories and innovative products in key markets from mid-year.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    2. Core business highlights: Velo leads growth, heated tobacco is ready to go<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

    (I) US market: Combustible tobacco and new product categories are recovering in two ways<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
      \n
    • Combustible tobacco market share stabilizes<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
      \n
      Although the overall sales volume of the U.S. tobacco industry fell by about 9% year-on-year, BAT stabilized its market share through the Natural American Spirit and Lucky Strike brands, and is expected to achieve double growth in revenue and profit in the first half of the year and the full year.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n
    • Velo Plus explodes in growth<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
      \n
      Modern oral product Velo Plus drove the sales share of modern oral products to 11.9% in the U.S. market, with revenue achieving triple-digit growth and excellent user trial rate and retention rate.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      2. Velo\u2019s global expansion: a growth engine in the modern oral sector<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
        \n
      • Significant increase in market share<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
        \n
        In major markets, modern oral products grew to 29.7% of sales, and total oral products grew to 14.3%, becoming the core driver of the \u201cfastest growing new category segment\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n
      • Consolidation of regional advantages<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
        \n
        Maintained leadership in the Asia, Middle East and Europe (AME) markets, with strong revenue growth contributed by markets such as the UK, Poland and Scandinavia.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        (III) Glo accelerates its layout: the key to success in the second half of the year for heated tobacco<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
          \n
        • Serbia pilot project has achieved remarkable results<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
          \n
          After glo Hilo was launched in Serbia, the user conversion rate doubled compared to the previous trial, accumulating key data for subsequent market expansion.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n
        • Global Phased Deployment<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
          \n
          Although the key market share fell by 90 basis points in the first half of the year due to the fierce competition in the Japanese market and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the continued elimination of traditional ultra-thin platforms<\/span><\/span>\u00a0,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the phased deployment in core markets in the second half of the year is expected to accelerate revenue growth from low single-digit growth to a higher level.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          3. Challenges and Responses: Vuse is under pressure, and high-end new products will save the market in the second half of the year<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

          1. Electronic cigarette Vuse: Adjustment under the impact of illegal products in the United States and Canada<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
            \n
          • Short-term revenue decline<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
            \n
            Affected by illegal e-cigarettes in the United States and Canada, revenue is expected to decline by about 15% in the first half of the year.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n
          • High-end product breakthrough strategy<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
            \n
            It plans to launch a new high-end e-cigarette product Vuse Ultra in phases in the second half of the year and continue to allocate targeted resources\u00a0<\/span><\/span>to boost revenue performance.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            2. Regional market differentiation: policy risks and growth resilience coexist<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n
              \n
            • APMEA market is blocked<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
              \n
              The impact of consumption tax and regulatory adjustments in Bangladesh and Australia dragged down the performance of the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and African markets.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n
            • AME market shows resilience<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
              \n
              Markets such as Brazil, T\u00fcrkiye and Romania support the financial performance of the AME region, demonstrating the growth potential of emerging markets.<\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              CEO Tadeu Marroco said:\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\"Our first half revenue performance was slightly better than previous guidance and we now expect full year revenue growth of 1-2%, supporting adjusted operating profit growth of 1.5% to 2.5%. 2025 is a key deployment year and as previously highlighted, our performance will be focused on the second half of the year, driven by the promotion of new category innovations in key markets starting mid-year.\"<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

              Source: https:\/\/www.bat.com\/media\/press-releases\/_2025\/june\/2025-first-half-pre-close-trading-update<\/span><\/span><\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              On June 3, 2025, BAT released the \" 2025 First Half Pre-Close Trading Update\" announcement\u00a0, which showed that the performance of core businesses was differentiated, new product categories be …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abesmoke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}