China Looks to Slash Its Brand Portfolio

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 11/12/2010

The China National Tobacco Corp plans to cut the number of domestic cigarette brands to less than 20 by 2015 in a bid to compete with overseas rivals, according to a story by Tu Lei for the Global Times. Achieving that goal will mean eliminating more than 80 brands in five years. Part of the plan is to pit two brands, Double Happiness and Hill of the Red Pagoda, against cigarettes such as Marlboro, Virginia Slims and Parliament. The goal is for each of these brands to sell up to five million cases (a case is 50,000 cigarettes) annually by 2015, which is ambitious since last year sales of Double Happiness reached 1.64 million cases and those of Hill of the Red Pagoda 2.17 million cases. Earlier this year, the head of CNTC, Jiang Chenkang, said: "Improving the competitive edge of the whole industry is our goal". Enditem