{"id":78018,"date":"2026-07-07T01:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/78018\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T01:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:04:29","slug":"british-american-tobacco-to-cut-9000-jobs-as-vapes-replace-cigarettes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/78018\/","title":{"rendered":"British American Tobacco to cut 9,000 jobs as vapes replace cigarettes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"British<\/a> British American Tobacco seeks to cut \u00a3600m of costs – Nick Ansell\/PA <\/p>\n

Lucky Strike and Dunhill maker British American Tobacco (BAT) is to cut 9,000 jobs as vapes replace cigarettes worldwide. <\/p>\n

BAT will cut 5,500 roles by the end of the year and outsource another 3,500 roles as it seeks to cut \u00a3600m in costs by the end of 2028. <\/p>\n

The decision to axe a fifth of its 47,000-strong workforce comes as the company presses ahead with the closure of a factory in South Africa, which it blamed on competition from illicit trade<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Jobs in the UK will also be affected. The company said on Monday that a number of roles in Britain, Costa Rica, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Malaysia and Singapore have been outsourced to Accenture. <\/p>\n

Like other cigarette-makers, BAT is battling a drop in demand for cigarettes and other tobacco products. Smoking in the UK has fallen by a quarter since 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics. <\/p>\n

Revenues at BAT fell 1pc to \u00a325.6bn last year, even as it added 4.7 million consumers to its “smokeless” brands such as vapes and nicotine pouches. <\/p>\n

BAT has set a goal to have more than half of its revenue come from smoke-free products by 2035. Its smoke-free brands include vape Vuse and Glo, a heated tobacco product. <\/p>\n

However, the company faces intense competition in the vape market from challenger brands such as Lost Mary. <\/p>\n

Tadeu Marroco, the chief executive of BAT<\/a>, said the cost-cutting would help the company become “a future-ready organisation that is more agile, cost disciplined and technology enabled”. <\/p>\n

BAT said it had expanded its partnership with ITC Infotech, an Indian technology company, and would be outsourcing roles to it in Poland and Romania. <\/p>\n

Mr Marroco said: “These 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. <\/p>\n

“Whether through strategic partnerships or a more focused operational footprint, we are creating a simpler, faster BAT.” <\/p>\n

In February, Javed Iqbal, the interim chief financial officer, said that the use of AI and data-analytic tools would affect staffing levels. <\/p>\n

BAT shares fell as much as 1.9pc on the London Stock Exchange. <\/p>\n

Pallav Mittal, an analyst at Barclays, said: “Whilst the market has been aware of this saving programme, we think the scale of this workforce reduction is unexpected and could come as a surprise to investors.” <\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British American Tobacco seeks to cut \u00a3600m of costs – Nick Ansell\/PA Lucky Strike and Dunhill maker British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20745],"tags":[20030,26880],"class_list":["post-78018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-british-american-tobacco","tag-british-american-tobacco","tag-technology-company"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116876008869062591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}