[
THE INVESTOR] A total of 753 million packs of imported cigarettes were sold in the first half of this year, according to the industry on Aug. 31.
This is a 16 percent hike from the same period last year, showing that the major foreign tobacco companies -- Philip Morris Korea, JT International of Japan and British American Tobacco Korea -- have bounced back to the sales volume of 2014, before prices were raised.
Although their market share slightly fell to 40.6 percent from the previous half, it is a significant rise from the figure before 2014 that barely stayed over 30 percent.
The flexible price policy that enabled less price rise, and in some cases even decline, largely contributed to the increase in market share but their aggressive marketing campaign promoting smaller package and flavored cigarettes also affected the performance, according to the industry sources.
By Hwang You-mee (
glamazon@heraldcorp.com)