Discounting the cigarette market

摘要

The past three years have probably been the most kaleidoscopic in Pakistan's history. The nation has lived through a coup d'etat, the trial and subsequent exile of an elected prime minister, the self-imposed exile of another, non-legislated constitutional changes, a presidential referendum, and the rise and subjugation and rise again of Islamic political parties. The autumn of 2001 saw the start of a year-long military standoff with India and, on the western front, there is the spectre of the 'war against terror'. And there have been elections and a peaceful transition to democracy. At the tobacco industry level, Pakistan's cigarette market was thrown into confusion in March 2000 when, in a bid to increase its declining market share, Pakistan Tobacco Co (PTC) slashed the prices of two of its brands; one, Gold Flake, by as much as 50%. Lakson Tobacco Co countered by realigning Morven Gold and the market, which a year earlier had grown by 5%, saw sales soar by about a third as Morven and Gold Flake swept away the discounted brands―much as Marlboro had done in the US on that fateful Friday a few years ago. The move pushed PTC's income statement into the black in 2001 for the first time in seven years.