Imperial Brands refutes Nielsen sales estimates
Imperial Brands
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16:54 20/09/24
Imperial Brands said on Thursday that industry figures published the day before by Nielsen showing a big drop in sales were wide of the mark.
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Citing data from MSAi, Imperial said that over the four weeks ending on 18 May, sales of its factory manufactured cigarettes fell by 6.4% in comparison to a year ago.
According to Nielsen, they had fallen by 11.2%.
The company explained that MSAi compiled its weekly data from more than 300,000 stores representing at least 95% of US tobacco volumes.
Hence, Imperial said in a statement: "it does not rely on any extrapolation as a result of its extensive coverage."
Over the past 52 weeks, Imperial said that its own sales had fallen by 4.9%.
Management also predicted that full-year US industry volume declines would be a more pedestrian 4.5-5.0%.