Having been able to claw back about two per cent of its revenues  lost to illicit trade, local cigarette company Carreras Limited said it will continue to take added steps to dent the sale of illegal products.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer at the end of the 62nd annual general meeting held on Wednesday, Managing Director Franklin Murillo said a core focus of the company to ‘bring back customers from the illicit trade’ have so far been yielding positive results.

“With the official launch of our Pall Mall classics earlier this year, as a less premium brand and a more affordable alternative to our other brands, we have seen where this product has been making an impact — so far helping us [along with other measures] to recover about two per cent of the market at this point in time. The figure may be small but we are pleased with the progress, as the strategy to introduce the product as an alternative, we think has been working quite well,” Murillo said.

The illicit trade, which he said currently robs the company of about 20-27 per cent of its annual revenues, has been a recurring issue for the company, more so in recent years. The trade deemed highly organised, transnational and multifaceted, the company said, requires robust partnerships among local and international governments as well as the private sector to reduce negative impacts on people, business and society.

The managing director pleased however with the recent destruction and removal of some $400 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes from the market, following a joint partnership between Carib Cement and the Counter Terrorism and Organized Crime (CTOC) branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, said that increased operations such as these along with other measures should in the longer term bring better results for the business and all its stakeholders.

Carreras, which said it has been an instrumental player in the re-establishment of the National Anti-Contraband Committee, which is a multi-government and private stakeholder grouping, said it will continue to work with the regulatory bodies to develop and implement initiatives to educate, increase awareness in a bid to improve enforcement as it combats the illicit trade, and an influx of duty not paid cigarettes in the local market.

“We continue our partnership with the police and other fast-moving consumer goods companies in order to address the issue holistically. The authorities have been doing a good job and our ambition is to bring back all our consumers while we grow our contributions to government through the tax we pay,” Murillo said.

The company, as an approved distributor of combustibles including traditional favourites Matterhorn and Craven A among a number of premium and less-premium cigarettes, also said that with its new designation as a multi-category business, through the introduction of the Vuse vaping band, it has sought to expand its footprint in the nicotine market. This, while it diversifies the current product portfolio and move to offer customers increase preferences.

“It is still early days but so far our sales from Vuse products have been doing well with our projections remaining on track,” Murillo told shareholders of the company’s latest product launched last September.

At the end of its nine-month 2023 financial year ended December, the company delivered reduced revenues of $13.8 billion and net profit of $3.5 billion, down by approximately $2 billion and $1 million, respectively, when compared with the previous year.

Bullish on plans to further increase its market reach and penetration and to strengthen its brands’ identity — investment in research and development along with the introduction of new flavours, designs and features as well as a greater exploration of opportunities to expand its distribution channels, the cigarette company said remains however among its key areas of focus.

“Our outlook remains positive and while we want to continue to build the combustible side of the business, our focus on the illicit trade remains a key area of focus as we try to see how best we can bring back more of our consumers from those brands, reconciling them with even our more affordable options,” Murillo said.