#Interview
«WE KEEP OUR DIRECTION TO SUCCESS!»
Market Manager Imperial Tobacco Russia Vadim Rudnik shares his impressions of the company’s achievements in the 2018 financial year, reveals the secrets of success in difficult market
conditions and tells about plans for the next year.
– Today, the results of the fiscal year are the most relevant issue
in the company. Vadim, what is your estimation of the results we
were able to achieve in FY 2018?
– I have worked for Imperial Tobacco for 15 years, and I can
say with confidence that the past fiscal year was the most
successful one for the company in Russia during the entire
period of my work here. This was despite the fact that the
beginning of the year was very difficult, and nothing promised
to such impressive results: we survived through the two
waves of restructuring and operated in significant cost
cutting environment. It is not a secret that some colleagues
doubted our success in such conditions, but we managed to
achieve it and should be proud of it today.
Speaking about figures, in the past fiscal year we increased
our sales volume by 3% on the market, which was declining
by 8%. In other words, our performance is much better than
the current market dynamics in general. There is no doubt
that this is an excellent result on the market with such tough
competition. During the past year, Imperial Tobacco’s market
share increased from 7 to 7.8%. This is a great achievement!
We did a good job, and now it is time to celebrate. We indeed
have something to celebrate: Parker&Simpson, which was
launched on the Russian market less than three years ago,
achieved a market share of 2.82% and became the «largest»
brand in Imperial Tobacco’s portfolio in Russia. Today P&S is
one of the top ten Russian cigarette brands.
IMPERIAL TOBACCO SHARE
ON THE RUSSIAN MARKET
– This is a great result! However, let us get back to the market
share, as it is our main indicator of success. After sometime
of stagnation, we managed to significantly increase Imperial’s
share on the Russian market. Could you please tell us what did
it take to secure this growth and what strategy are you planning
to implement to retain the success?
– Do you remember the national conference we held in 2015?
I liked its slogan «We go on to success» very much, and I
remembered it. At the conference we discussed what we
should do to make our market share increase again.
In my opinion, success is always a combination of factors,
and we managed to determine these factors correctly and
focus on their implementation. As for the past fiscal year,
IN FY 2018 IMPERIAL TOBACCO’S MARKET SHARE
IN RUSSIA INCREASED FROM 7 TO 7.8%
7%
FY 2017
7.8%
FY 2018
The Империалист | | 8