Sampoerna reports higher sales

JAKARTA (JP): PT HM Sampoerna, one of the country's major cigarette producers, reported on Monday a 40.6 percent increase in total sales in the third quarter to Rp 2.24 trillion (about US$282.35 million) from Rp 1.7 trillion in the same period last year.

Total sales volume in the quarter ended in September increased by 29.5 percent to 10.49 billion cigarettes from 8.10 billion cigarettes in the same period last year.

"For the year to date, aggregate volumes are 20.2 percent ahead of 1999 while revenues are up 31.3 percent," the company said in a statement.

According to the September retail audit conducted by ACNielsen, Sampoerna is now the market leader in Jakarta as well as in other nine large cities in the country.

Sales of hand-rolled cigarettes increased by 18.5 percent to 6.71 billion cigarettes from 5.67 billion cigarettes in the same period last year, while the sales of machine-rolled cigarettes rose by 55 percent to 3.79 billion cigarettes from 2.43 billion cigarettes (hen).