Market share of TDR in Serbia increased, sales on decline

(Mato Zadro)

Tvornica duhana Rovinj (TDR), a leading cigarette manufacturer in southeast Europe, sold 1.3 billion cigarettes in Serbia last year, down from 1.4 billion in 2012. However, the company increased its market share in 2013 to 8.7% and continued in the same fashion this year and raised it to 10.5%, a record high since the company entered the market of Serbia, it was said at a press conference on Tuesday (10 June 2014).

Mato Zadro, the chairman of the TDR Managing Board, announced that the company was paying about EUR 53 milllion a year to the budget of Serbia.

- Taxes on cigarettes in Serbia grew approximately 150 percent in only three years, and this trend is expected to continue. With a drastic increase in taxes and the growing economic crisis, cigarette sales in Serbia dropped over 17% last year and this negative trend continued in 2014 as well - said Zadro.

As it was said, this resulted in a decrease in profits across the entire industry, a significant growth of black market and a drastically larger consumption of cut tobacco. When compared to the previous year, consumption of cut tobacco grew nearly 50%.

- Despite the crisis and increasingly unfavorable market conditions, TDR is satisfied with its results in the Serbian market in 2013. The growth trend was also continued in 2014. Every tenth consumer in Serbia is using the products made by TDR - Zadro stated.