Sales up for Bristol's most successful firm

Behind an unassuming Southville office-front lies Bristol's most successful company.

Imperial Tobacco sold 151.5-billion cigarettes across the world in the six months to the end of March.

That's 7.55 billion packets of 20 cigarettes – equivalent to 479 packets every second.

The firm, which has 425 staff across Bristol and 14,500 worldwide, unveiled a 54 per cent rise in sales to £12 billion in the same period.

Profits have risen by 49 per cent to a staggering £1.37bn.

The company, which has the highest sales and profits of any firm in the Bristol area, owns some of the High Street's most familiar tobacco brands – including Lambert and Butler and Richmond.

It sold an estimated 3.5 billion cigarettes of each brand over the six months. It also owns Rizla, and the Drum and Golden Virginia rolling tobacco brands.

Much of its success was down to its takeover of Altadis – a Spanish rival for which it paid £11bn in 2008.

This gave Imperial the Gauloise and Fortuna brands, two of the biggest selling cigarettes in Europe.

Speaking about the results, chief executive Gareth Davis said: "There's no doubt in my mind that tobacco is a great place to be in the current economic environment.

"We expect slightly stronger growth in the second half of the year."

Imperial currently has 225 staff in its Upton Road headquarters in Southville, and a further 125 employees in its sales team in Winterstoke Road in Ashton.

It also has 75 staff in its cigar factory in Winterstoke Road – which makes the Classic and Castella brands.

But these staff will be made redundant by September when the factory closes and production moves to Spain to cut costs.

For those people starting work at Imperial Tobacco, there is still the luxury of a final-salary pension scheme – a rarity in the current economic climate.