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IMPERIAL TOBACCO GROUP PLC
INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
2 February 2011
Ahead of the Annual General Meeting to be held later today, Imperial Tobacco Group PLC
(Imperial Tobacco) confirms that the overall operational performance and financial position
of the Group for the financial year to 30 September 2011 is in line with the Board’s
expectations.
Summarising today’s announcement Alison Cooper, Chief Executive, will say:
“We made a good start to the year with underlying tobacco net revenues up 5 per cent and
increased cigarette and fine cut tobacco volumes, resulting in total stick equivalent volumes
up 1.2 per cent. Our global strategic cigarette brands grew by 7 per cent with Davidoff,
Gauloises Blondes and West continuing to perform strongly, particularly in emerging
markets.
“We continue to drive sales across our total tobacco portfolio. In fine cut tobacco we
maintained our positive volume momentum, particularly in our Rest of EU region and cigar
volumes were also up with improved mix and strong results in the USA and emerging
markets. In logistics, ongoing cost management initiatives have strengthened our operations.
“Our enhanced sales strategy is delivering tangible results. We continue to focus on
strengthening our position in markets where challenges persist, particularly in Spain and
Greece, and on building sales across our international footprint, whilst managing costs and
effectively utilising our substantial cash flows.”
Dividend
Reflecting our strong financial position, the Board envisages increasing the dividend pay-out
ratio to 50 per cent of adjusted earnings in financial year 2011.
Tax
Following the favourable resolution of a number of outstanding matters with various
European tax authorities, our adjusted tax rate for 2011 and subsequent years is expected to
be around 24.5 per cent. In addition, in our reported results we will make a tax provision
release of approximately £200 million.
Management Changes
Graham Blashill, Group Sales and Marketing Director, will retire from the Board today
following our Annual General Meeting. Graham has been with Imperial Tobacco for 42 years
and has played a leading role in developing our total tobacco portfolio.
Two external sales and marketing appointments have been made to our Operating
Executive to further drive our sustainable sales growth agenda.
Arthur van Benthem, formerly Customer Management Director of the Metro Group, will be
joining the company as Group Sales Director on March 1st 2011.

Arthur has a wealth of international FMCG sales experience. Prior to joining the Metro
Group, he was with Royal FrieslandCampina. He also had a number of senior roles with
Coca-Cola working in South Korea, New Zealand, Indonesia and The Netherlands.
He will work closely with Roberto Funari, who was appointed Group Marketing Director in
November. Roberto also has a strong track record in international FMCG and joined from
Reckitt Benckiser where he was a Global Category Officer having previously held a number
of other senior roles in the business.
Trading Update
The following highlights of our trading performance relate to the three months ended 31
December 2010 unless otherwise stated. All market volumes and market shares are based
on Imperial Tobacco estimates for the twelve months to December 2010. Market size and
share tables are provided for the UK, Germany and Spain in the appendix.
3 months to
31 December
Underlying tobacco net revenue* +5%
Total stick equivalent volumes** +1.2%
Cigarette volumes +0.5%
Fine cut tobacco volumes (stick equivalents) +6.3%
* Underlying Tobacco net revenue excludes the impact of foreign exchange and other income growth in our Moroccan
business.
** Stick equivalents reflects our combined cigarette and fine cut tobacco volumes.
We increased underlying tobacco net revenues by 5 per cent. In total our mature markets
continue to provide good revenue growth whilst of our emerging markets, revenues in
Eastern Europe and Africa & Middle East were particularly strong.
Total stick equivalent volumes grew 1.2 per cent with cigarette volumes increasing 0.5 per
cent and fine cut tobacco volumes growing by more than 6 per cent.
Group cigarette volume growth was driven by strong performances in our Africa & Middle
East and our Asia Pacific regions. Our global strategic brands had an excellent first quarter
with new formats supporting their growth. We grew Davidoff volumes over 10 per cent, with
very good performances in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Russia. Gauloises Blondes volumes
were also up over 10 per cent with strong growth in the Middle East against a relatively weak
comparator. We improved our West volumes by more than 3 per cent with Russia and a
number of other Eastern European markets the main contributors. We increased volumes of
our key regional brands Gitanes, Fortuna and in particular JPS, which grew by 24 per cent.
In fine cut tobacco we improved sales across our core European business, achieving very
good growth in Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
UK
UK market stick equivalent volumes were stable at 56.3 billion sticks and our cigarette share
was stable at 45.3 per cent. JPS Silver and Windsor Blue continue to perform strongly with

oth holding a share above 5 per cent. Our value fine cut tobacco brands, Gold Leaf and
Golden Virginia Yellow also grew share.
Following our September 2010 price increase we further raised prices in January across our
portfolio following the rise in VAT.
Germany
German market stick equivalent volumes were stable at 119.5 billion sticks and our share of
the cigarette market was stable at 27.0 per cent. We continue to leverage the strength of our
JPS brand franchise, with further share growth in both cigarette and fine cut tobacco. JPS
now holds almost 10 per cent of the cigarette market and has increased its fine cut tobacco
share to over 8 per cent. Our total fine cut tobacco share was up strongly to 20.8 per cent,
with Route 66 supporting the growth of JPS.
Spain
Spain remains challenging with market stick equivalent volumes down 10 per cent at 78.1
billion sticks. Cigarette market volumes and mix have been further impacted by a significant
duty increase in the quarter and a ban on smoking in public places introduced in January is
also affecting market volumes.
Our domestic blonde market share was 28.6 per cent and our fine cut tobacco share was
32.2 per cent. Both were, in part, adversely affected by competitor shipment patterns in
December.
In the growing value segment, Ducados Rubio continues to perform well, increasing its
overall market share. To strengthen our portfolio we launched Fortuna Red Line in
November and are pleased with its initial progress, achieving a December spot share of 0.4
per cent of the domestic blonde segment. The newly launched Nobel Style queen size
cigarette has also made an encouraging start.
We continue to leverage our total tobacco portfolio, with Ducados Rubio making further
share gains in domestic fine cut tobacco and Coburn the clear market leader in ecocigarillos.
Rest of European Union
Regional stick equivalent market volumes were down 3 per cent, impacted by declines in
Greece and Poland. Excluding Greece and Poland volumes were down 1 per cent. We
raised prices in a number of markets in the period including in France, which is our largest
market in the region.
We grew our cigarette share in the majority of markets including Austria, Czech Republic,
Greece, Hungary and Portugal. JPS was very strong in the region, growing volumes in a
number of markets including Austria, France, Greece and Portugal.
In fine cut tobacco we achieved significant share gains in a number of markets in Central
Europe, in particular in Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

Americas
In the USA, cigarette market volumes declined 4 per cent, in line with the long term trend
and our share was 3.9 per cent. Our brands performed robustly in a very competitive
environment, with Fortuna growing share and we increased prices of most of our brands in
December.
We grew cigar sales strongly in the quarter in both value and volume terms and significantly
improved our mix. In natural wrapper cigars, our largest category, both Backwoods and
Dutch Masters performed well.
Rest of the World
In our Rest of the World region, our stick equivalent volumes were up 4 per cent in the
quarter, with cigarette volume growth in Africa & Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
We grew volumes of Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes and West in a number of markets,
achieving particular success in emerging growth segments such as super slims and king
size super slims.
We improved our quarterly cigarette volumes in a number of markets in Africa & Middle East,
with strong growth from Davidoff and Gauloises Blondes. In Morocco our key local brand
Marquise continues to perform well and improved its share to almost 62 per cent.
In Asia Pacific, we grew our quarterly cigarette volumes with good performances in Vietnam
and Laos, as well as in South Korea following the launch of Davidoff in May. We grew or
maintained cigarette share in all our key markets and made further gains in Australia, driven
by growth in Superkings and JPS.
In our first quarter, cigarette market volume declines in Russia and Ukraine moderated. In
Russia, Davidoff and West super slims and king size super slims variants continue to
improve share supported by growth in Style. In Ukraine, we increased our share to over 22
per cent driven by Davidoff, Style and Prima.
Our luxury Cuban cigar business had an excellent first quarter, with revenue and volume
growth in a number of markets including Russia, Brazil, the Middle East and Asia, with
particular success in China.
Logistics
In Logistics, ongoing cost management, business integration and development of new
services resulted in an increase in profits, despite declining tobacco volumes in Spain.

Appendix
12 months to
December 2010
12 months to
December 2009
Change
UK
Total market stick equivalents 56.3bn 56.6bn -%
Cigarette
Market volume 44.0bn 45.5bn -3%
Market share 45.3% 45.2% +0.1%
Fine cut tobacco
Market volume* 12.3bn 11.1bn +11%
Market share 53.5% 57.0% -3.5%
Germany
Total market stick equivalents 119.5bn 119.7bn -%
Cigarette
Market volume 83.9bn 85.5bn -2%
Market share 27.0% 27.1% -0.1%
Fine cut tobacco
Market volume* 35.6bn 34.2bn +4%
Market share 20.8% 19.6% +1.2%
Spain
Total market stick equivalents 78.1bn 87.1bn -10%
Cigarette
Market volume 71.6bn 80.7bn -11%
Domestic blonde market share 28.6% 30.1% -1.5%
Fine cut tobacco
Market volume* 6.5bn 6.4bn +2%
Market share 32.2% 39.5% -7.3%
*stick equivalents
Enquiries
Gerry Gallagher (Director of Investor Communications)
Telephone: +44 (0) 117 933 7014
John Nelson-Smith (Investor Relations Manager)
Telephone: +44 (0) 117 933 7032
Alex Parsons (Director of Corporate Communications)
Telephone: +44 (0) 117 933 7241
Simon Evans (Group Press Officer)
Telephone: +44 (0) 117 933 7375