Weeks after their cigarettes begun to completely disappear from local shops, bar and mall shelves, British American Tobacco (BAT); the manufacturers of Intore, Dunhill Switch and Dunhill Lights brands have blamed the shortage on tax stamps.
Weeks after their cigarettes begun to completely disappear from local shops, bar and mall shelves, British American Tobacco (BAT); the manufacturers of Intore, Dunhill Switch and Dunhill Lights brands have blamed the shortage on tax stamps.
By press time, these brands, which are the three most popular in the country were nowhere in any of the biggest retail stores – Simba Supermarket, Nakumatt and Ndoli’s Joint chain of supermarkets.
At the 514 Bar and Restaurant at Kisimenti, a pack of Intore cost Rfw2000, a price that is double what ordinarily costs. Dunhill, if available, goes for Rfw4,000 which is also double from the usual Rfw2000.
In Kisimenti area a survey we did found that only one retail store on a building known as Kwa Mutsindashyaka, has BAT cigarettes, with Intore going for Rwf2,000 and Rfw5,000 for any of the Dunhill brands.
In Kimironko, most consumers of the BAT brands have been left with no option but to enter the market and buy Intore at Rwf2,000. Hardly any shop or bar has cigarettes and the only one that had Dunhill Lights was selling a packet at Rwf6000; four times its usual retail price.
Within the shops and bars within Remera-Giporoso’s hotspot, commonly known as ‘Corridor’, Dunhill which originally sold at Rfw1,500 was .going for between Rfw4000-Rwf6000.
Dunhill Switch was nowhere to be found in all the areas we visited.
Addressing the shortage In an email to The New Times, BAT Kenya’s Simukai Munjanganja – Head of Legal and External Affairs (East and Central Africa) shot down speculations of decreased production or hoarding of product due to prospective price increase.He however said that there were challenges in the company’s supply chain.In 2006, an operational restructuring exercise saw BAT Kenya take over the manufacturing of the cigarettes and only left BAT Rwanda to handle the distribution and marketing for the Rwanda-Burundi area."We regret that there has been a shortage of our products namely […]
