JTI upgrades forecast after strong H1 performance

Total tobacco market share grew in over 30 markets, including the key markets of Japan, the Philippines, Turkey and the USA

JTI reports strong first-half growth, driven by pricing, higher volumes and continued momentum for Ploom and heated products

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The Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Group has recently disclosed the financial results for Q2 and first-half 2026.

First-half 2026 tobacco business highlights

First half performance was strong, driven by a solid pricing contribution across the footprint and positive volume.

The favorable volume was fueled by sustained market share momentum in Combustibles and robust RRP volume growth, with Ploom continuing to gain share in Heated Products.

These solid results led to an upward revision of the full-year forecast for the tobacco business.

Core revenue

At constant FX: Core revenue grew by 10.6%, fueled by all clusters.

The drivers were a price/mix contribution of JPY 157.0 billion and a favorable volume variance of JPY 5.1 billion in the Asia and EMA clusters.

RRP-related revenue grew by 40.7%, fueled by strong volume growth in all clusters, notably in Heated Products.

At reported: Core revenue increased by 19.1%, driven by the weak JPY, notably versus EUR, GBP, RUB and others.

Adjusted operating profit

At constant FX: Adjusted operating profit grew by 18.8%, driven by the double-digit increase in core revenue, partially offset by higher investments towards RRP and inflation-led cost increases.

At reported: Adjusted operating profit increased by 25.3%, driven by the weak JPY, notably versus EUR, GBP, RUB and others.

Volume and Market share

Strong RRP volume growth, mainly driven by Ploom in Japan, and sustained market share gains in Combustibles, resulted in total volume increasing by 1.0%, or by 0.4% when excluding inventory adjustments.

In Combustibles, growth in the Asia and EMA clusters, mainly driven by GFB volume (+1.2%), notably Winston (+1.7%) and Camel (+2.8%), was offset by lower industry volume in several markets of the Western Europe cluster. As a result, Combustibles volume grew by 0.2%.

In RRP, solid volume growth (+33.8%) was driven by Ploom increasing volume by 43.5%, including after the demand normalization for Heated Products in Japan post the April excise tax-led price increases.

Total tobacco market share grew in over 30 markets, including the key markets of Japan, the Philippines, Turkey and the USA.

Read more: Revenue seize Tobacco products worth €9,100

© 2026, ShelfLife by Ryan Brennan

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