British American Tobacco announced Monday sweeping job cuts as the cigarette maker axes 5,500 roles globally and outsources another 3,500 to help slash costs.\n<\/p>\n
The maker of Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarettes aims to save \u00a3600 million ($792 million) a year by 2028 in a restructuring that will affect around 20 percent of BAT\u2019s 47,000-member workforce, it said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
BAT, along with other tobacco majors, faces declining demand for traditional cigarettes, and is turning its focus instead to newer categories including vapes and oral nicotine products.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are building a future-ready organisation that is more agile, cost disciplined and technology enabled,\u201d said chief executive Tadeu Marroco.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes affect many of our colleagues, and we are focused on supporting them through this transition with care and respect, as we position the business for the future,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The job cuts span BAT\u2019s global workforce except for the United States, its largest market, where the business is run through its subsidiary Reynolds American.\n<\/p>\n
Shares in the company fell 1.5 percent on the London stock exchange, where the top-tier FTSE 100 index was trading 0.2 percent lower.<\/p>\n
\u201cBritish\u00a0American\u00a0Tobacco is the latest name to ramp up the use of technology to help its business run more smoothly and be able to launch new products faster,\u201d said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scale of cutbacks is a sign of the times, and the trend is worrying for the state of the labour market,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
AFP\n <\/p>\n
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