BAT Group Announces New Vision... Invests 1.5 Trillion KRW in Next-Generation Products Over 3 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Saeng-hye] BAT Korea has changed its corporate logo and announced its vision for its core business areas.

BAT Korea announced on the 30th that BAT Group CEO Jack Bowles and the management team held an investor briefing via webcast, explaining the global management performance as well as the core business areas and the change of the corporate logo.

Last year, BAT Group achieved results in key businesses such as the cigarette market and next-generation product lines, while solidly building the corporate structure. Based on this, it exceeded financial performance targets in sales and cash generation, improving financial soundness by reducing debt levels.

Over the past year, the company successfully recruited more than 300 experts in various fields, with female managers accounting for 37% of the total. Through new hires, it secured new competitiveness as well as diverse expertise in digital, product development, science, and design, laying a strong foundation for future business.

BAT Group is moving towards a stronger, simpler, and faster organization by ▲building consumer insights across various product categories to respond to changes in consumer preferences ▲investing ?1 billion saved from cost reductions over the next three years into next-generation product areas ▲accelerating testing and development of new products beyond nicotine through the establishment of an innovation team and in-house ventures.

Through these measures, the new corporate goal of 'reducing the health impact of our business by expanding consumers' choices for satisfying yet less harmful products' is supported by BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW.

CEO Jack Bowles said, “I am pleased that we have begun to deliver group-wide results by implementing the business priorities set at the beginning of 2019,” adding, “We aim to set expanded goals across environment, society, and governance as a commitment to new sustainability.”

BAT Group has set targets to reach 50 million consumers of non-combustible product lines and achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030, advancing the existing environmental achievement target to 2025. To achieve these goals, BAT defines its corporate culture with five keywords: bold, fast, empowered, responsible, and diverse, and plans to continuously create value through performance in the cigarette market and next-generation product lines as well as business restructuring.

Meanwhile, BAT Group is adjusting the launch schedule of new products in response to the global spread of COVID-19. It is expected to be difficult to expand sales of next-generation products such as e-liquids and pouch-type oral tobacco in the first half of the year. BAT Group is pursuing continuous growth with annual sales targets of ?5 billion (approximately 7.4 trillion KRW) for next-generation product lines in 2023 and 2024.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.