34
TOBACCO BUSINESS
JULY/AUGUST 2013
CATEGORY MANAGER
CIGARETTES
Traditional
vs.
E-Cigarettes
In the first quarter of 2013,
domestic
cigarette
sales
declined by 6.1 percent from
the same period in 2012. While
experts noted that there were
two fewer shipping days in this
year’s first quarter, the statistic
suggests that industry volumes
will continue to fall.
Furthermore, e-cigarette sales
are on an upswing, which has
industry observers wondering
how much of the decline in the
sale of traditional cigarettes
can be directly attributed to
the advance of the e-cigarette
category. In fact, the Maxwell
Report
recently
speculated
that “e-cigarette volume could
have impacted the industry by
as much as 1 percent in Q1 of
2013.”
The tables on the pages to
follow offer a bird’s eye view
of the respective decline and
growth of the two categories.
One declining, one growing—two categories
of cigarettes are duking it out for market share.
Despite
the
hubbub
surrounding the steady
decline in cigarette sales,
46.6 million—or one out
of every five adults in the
U.S.—still smoke.
