BAT Romania''s profits up

British American Tobacco (BAT) Romania witnessed a significant increase in profits during the first six months of this year, with the company explaining this performance by the structure of the product range and by the profit margins of the main brands, Kent and Pall Mall. The two brands are, together with Lucky Strike, Dunhill, Vogue and Viceroy (with the latter two only for the European unit) the growth engines for BAT profit worldwide. As part of this policy, BAT Romania has recently re-launched the Dunhill brand on the Romanian market. Studies by AC Nielsen market research company show BAT to have had a market share of 34% in May 2005, equal with that of Philip Morris. Of the two brands that have added to BAT”s profit, Pall Mall ranks fourth and Kent seventh in the top ten of brands present on the Romanian market, as revealed by research done by AC Nielsen in 2004. ZF