Japan Tobacco Inc. said Monday its group net profit in the first half of fiscal 2005 rose 34.6 percent from a year earlier to 101 billion, yen a record for the second straight first-half period.
JT, which has the monopoly on tobacco production, attributed the profit gain to operational restructuring and increased sales of the Global Flagship Brand products -- Camel, Winston, Mild Seven and Salem -- which form JT's growth engine, the company said in its consolidated earnings report for the April-September period.
Group pretax profit for the period was 158.38 billion, yen up 14.9 percent from a year earlier, JT said. But first-half overall sales dropped 0.9 percent to 2.35 trillion yen due partly to a decline in domestic tobacco sales.
Domestic tobacco sales fell 2.4 percent to 1.75 trillion yen while international sales rose 8.8 percent to 417.6 billion yen.