30 March 2026
Big Tobacco makes a lot of noise about how it is shifting to alternate tobacco and nicotine products because it now acknowledges smoking is harmful. But it is not giving up cigarettes because these are simply too lucrative.
In 2025, Philip Morris International (PMI)’s net revenue was US $40.6 billion. Of this, more than half (58.5%) of its revenue, i.e. US $23.7 billion, came from selling 607.4 billion cigarettes. In 2024, it made $23.2 billion or 61.3% of its revenue from cigarettes.
The BAT Group in 2025, made US$ 33.9 billion (£25.6 billion) in revenue. Of this, it made US$ 26.8 billion (£20.2billion) from selling 465 billion sticks of cigarettes, which is 79% of its revenue.
About 97.5% (£2.82 billion) of Imperial Brands 2025 revenue came from its conventional tobacco products and only 2.5% (£70 million) from so called new generation products.
To increase their revenue even more from cigarettes, the transnational tobacco companies have also been setting up new cigarette manufacturing facilities in countries to lower cost of production and also acquired local tobacco enterprise to expand their business (Table 1).
In Germany for example, PMI shut down its two cigarette factories and Imperial Brands closed its Reemtsma plant. In 2024, PMI announced it will build a newcigarette manufacturing facility in Morogoro, Tanzania.
Table 1: Big Tobacco’s Movement in Expanding Cigarette Production*
Tobacco Factory Shut Down
Germany
Imperial Brands
Imperial Brands announced it will shut down its cigarette production at its Reemtsma plant in Langenhagen, Germany by 2027
Germany
PMI
PMI closed its last two factories in Germany in mid-2025: Berlin in June and Dresden factory in July. The main reason cited for the closure was declining consumption of cigarettes in Europe.
South Africa
BAT South Africa
BATSA announced it will close its local manufacturing facility and halt domestic production by the end of 2026
Tobacco Factory Opened, Expanded or Acquired
Indonesia
KT&G
KT&G new Indonesian factory is scheduled to be completed by November 2025 and scheduled to begin full-scale operations in February 2026.
Indonesia
PT HM Sampoerna/ PMI
In April 2024 HM Sampoerna inaugurated two new hand-rolled kretek cigarette manufacturing facilities in Blitar, East Java, and Tegal, Central Java. Sampoerna currently has nine factories, including six hand-rolled cigarette factories.
Kazakhstan
KT&G
KT&G opened its new Kazakhstan plant in April 2025
which will be the production hub for its Eurasian market and is expected to produce 4.5 billion cigarettes a year. KT&G plans to increase the proportion of its global revenue to 50% by 2027 through the expansion of direct global operations.
Romania
JTI
In March 2026 JTI has announced the launch of a €300 millioninvestment in a new factory replacing the factory in Bucharest, due to space constraints in Pipera. Romania is a key market serving as an important industrial hub in Europe. Over 70% of the production made in Romania is exported to approximately 70 markets worldwide including Japan
Türkiye
KT&G
KT&G expanded its factory in Türkiye in January 2025 as part of its plan to become a global top-tier company and strengthen its international operations. The factory expanded 1.5 times, and houses four cigarette-making machines with an annual production capacity of 12 billion sticks.
Uzbekistan
BAT
In October 2025, BAT acquired the state-owned stake in the UzBAT joint venture for $22.3 million. UzBAT, the country’s leading tobacco manufacturer, produces traditional cigarettes.
*Not comprehensive list
Korean KT&G has been particularly aggressive in expanding its cigarette business overseas and has set up factories in Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Türkiye to meet its objective to make 50% of its profits from overseas sales by 2027. In 2025, KT&G had record earnings of 6.5 trillion won in sales, as its global cigarette business obtained 1.88 trillion won in revenue, surpassing the domestic figure for the first time.
In January this year, BAT South Africa announced it will shut down its factory in Heidelberg, in the Gauteng province due to the negative impact of the fast‑growing illicit cigarette market. But it is not quitting sales, instead of locally manufacturing the cigarettes, it will import them into South Africa.
In 2016, BAT Malaysia similarly shut its manufacturing facility in Malaysia claiming high illicit cigarettes, “fueled” by the government steadily increasing excise duties on tobacco products. But BAT did not give up its license to manufacture cigarettes. BAT resumed cigarette manufacturing in Malaysia three years later despite illicit trade remaining high. Influenced by tobacco companies, the government did not increase tobacco tax for 10 years till 2025.
Governments need to wise up to tobacco industry’s tactics and not give in to its complaints. Instead, they must focus on implementing strong tobacco control measures according to the WHO FCTC.
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