<strong>China: Hongta Group Sees Cigarette Sales Income Reach Record High in First Nine Months</strong>

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 12/06/2013

Hongta Group in southwest China's tobacco-producing Yunnan Province – a leading Chinese tobacco manufacturer – earned a total of 68.83 billion yuan in taxable income from cigarette sales in the January-Sep. period of 2013, an increase of 5.24 percent over the level of 65.396 billion yuan in the same period of 2012; profits, 7.037 billion yuan, an increase of 32.3 percent over the level of 5.33 billion yuan in the same period of 2012.

Cigarette sales structure improvement and strengthening the cost control in the third quarter of 2013 are the main factors of Hongta Group's profit rapid growth.

In first three quarters, Hongta Group sold 160.1 billion yuan cigarettes (3.202 million cases) in Yunan province, an increase of 1.97 percent over the level of 3.145 million cases in the same period of 2012.

Under the increase of the sales volume and sales revenue, operating costs fell 3.2% year on year, it means the cost control management and cost savings activities achieved obvious results. Enditem