The JT Group has disclosed the Financial Results for Q1 2026.
Read the full report here.
Q1 2026 Tobacco business highlights
The performance in the tobacco business was robust, fueled by a positive volume and a strong pricing contribution. Driven by sustained market share gains, Combustibles volume was resilient, and RRP volume growth accelerated, across all clusters, boosted by the on-going rollout of Ploom AURA, now available in 25 markets, and supported by continued investments. Regarding the Middle East situation, there is no material impact in the quarter.
Core revenue
At constant FX: Core revenue grew by 10.1%, fueled by all clusters. The drivers were a price/mix contribution of JPY 69.5 billion and a favorable volume variance of JPY 4.4 billion. RRP-related revenue grew by 63.8%, fueled by double-digit volume growth in all clusters, including the temporary accelerated demand in Japan ahead of the excise tax-led price increases in Heated Products.
At reported: Core revenue increased by 16.2%, driven by the weak JPY, notably versus RUB and EUR.
Adjusted operating profit
At constant FX: Adjusted operating profit grew by 19.2%, driven by the double-digit increase in core revenue, partially offset by higher investments towards RRP and inflation-led cost increases.
At reported: Adjusted operating profit increased by 21.4%, driven by the weak JPY, notably versus RUB.
Volume and Market share
Strong RRP volume growth, mainly by Ploom in Japan, and continued market share gains in Combustibles, most notably in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Turkey, resulted in total volume increasing by 0.9%, or by 0.7% when excluding inventory adjustments.
In Combustibles, robust growth in the Asia cluster and in GFB volume (+1.0%) driven by 4 Winston (+1.9%) and Camel (+1.4%), was offset by lower industry volume in several markets of the Western Europe and EMA clusters. As a result, Combustibles volume was nearly flat (-0.1%).
In RRP, volume growth accelerated (+44.2%), fueled by a significant increase of Ploom (+57.0%), including the temporary incremental demand in Japan ahead of Heated Products tax-led price revisions.
Total tobacco market share grew in over 45 markets, including the key markets of Italy, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA.