British American Tobacco South Africa

General Navigation

Text size: A A

Breadcrumb

Who we are

British American Tobacco South Africa is a part of the British American Tobacco Group of companies which operates in more than 180 countries worldwide.

In South Africa, the business in its present form was created following the global merger of Rothmans International, partly owned by the Rembrandt Group, and London-based British American Tobacco p.l.c.

The marriage saw the birth of one of the foremost fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) businesses in the country. With more than 20 brands in our portfolio, we make the cigarette chosen by about nine in ten of the country’s five million adult smokers. We contribute about R8-billion in excise and VAT per year to the Government. These figures provide some sense of the scale of our organisation but, like any company, we are much more than a set of statistics.

In 2004 we celebrated 100 years of existence in South Africa. Our success in the country was not achieved by accident. The company became a leading business from its inception in 1904 and we believe that we have retained many of the qualities that initially helped place us at the forefront of our industry.

We believe there is real value embedded not only in how we run our business but in our ability to see the world as it really is; select, retain and develop employees; build relationships of trust with consumers, suppliers, distributors and partners; and manage high quality brands.

Key statistics

British American Tobacco South Africa enjoys about 65% of the total legitimate tobacco market - including cigarettes, roll-your-own, pipe, cigars, snuff and snus - in a country where one out of every four adults chooses to smoke or use tobacco products.
We have nine distribution and trade marketing offices throughout South Africa, with our head office located in Stellenbosch.
We purchase up to 60% of the annual South African tobacco crop for both local and export production.
Our factory in Heidelberg produces about 28 billion cigarettes annually for domestic and international markets.
Our company employs more than 2,000 people throughout South Africa.
We market more than 20 brands, including Dunhill, Kent, Peter Stuyvesant and Rothmans.
There are more than 60,000 formal retailers and tens of thousands of informal traders who are dependent to some degree on the sale of tobacco products.
British American Tobacco South Africa spends R30-million annually on corporate social investment projects, mainly in the areas of empowerment, sustainable agriculture, civic life and HIV/Aids.