British American Tobacco - We are BAT

Quick Navigation

Jump to content Logo
BAT 2594.15p

We are BAT

Members of our team in Brazil outside our offices in Rio de Janeiro.

We are a leading, multi-category consumer goods business. Our purpose is to build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of our business through offering a greater choice of enjoyable and less risky*† products for our consumers.

We hope ‘We are BAT’ helps you understand who we really are. How we operate; what it’s like to work for our company; and our clear purpose.

We are a leading global company

Global presence – our offices in Istanbul, Turkey.

We’ve been around a long time – since 1902 in fact – and have evolved into one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies. We are proud of our history and excited about our transformation journey to build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of our business.

We are a leading FTSE company with truly international credentials. Spread across six continents, our regions are the United States of America; Americas & Europe (AME) and ) and Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA).

There are more than 50,000 BAT people worldwide. Although we have had to adapt how and where we work from since the start of 2020, many of us are based in offices, factories, tech hubs and R&D centres, but lots of us also spend our time out on the road, helping and advising tobacco farmers, and the retailers who sell our products; both valued partners who have always played a major part in our success.

Our heritage – and the foundation of our success – is in cigarettes.

However, we recognise the world is changing. We now have a clear purpose to build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of our business.

This entails:

  • Committing to providing adult consumers with a wide range of enjoyable and less risky products
  • Continuing to be clear that combustible cigarettes pose serious health risks, and the only way to avoid these risks is not to start or to quit
  • Encouraging those who otherwise continue to smoke, to switch completely to scientifically-substantiated, reduced-risk alternatives*†
  • Tracking and sharing progress of our transformation.

Our ambition remains to have 50 million consumers of our non-combustible products by 2030 and to accelerate the growth of our New Category revenues at a faster rate than our total revenue, reaching £5billion in 2025. We have already made good progress towards these targets: we increased consumers of non-combustible brands by 4.2million, reaching 22.5million by the end of 2022, and revenue from these products now accounts for 14.8% of Group revenue.

We continue to accelerate our transformation journey to create A Better Tomorrow™ for all our stakeholders.

* Based on the weight of evidence and assuming a complete switch from cigarette smoking. These products are not risk free and are addictive.
† Our products as sold in the US, including Vuse, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, and Camel Snus, are subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation and no reduced-risk claims will be made as to these products without FDA clearance
 

We are building A Better Tomorrow™

Tobacco heating products feature among our portfolio of reduced-risk products*†.

Today, we have a clear corporate purpose – to build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of our business through offering a greater choice of enjoyable and less risky products for our consumers.

Our business is on a transformation journey. We see new opportunities to capture consumer moments which have, over time, become limited by societal and regulatory shifts, and to satisfy evolving consumer needs and preferences.

We have evolved our strategy to put a sharper focus on our New Categories of products, fuelled by investment from the continued delivery of our traditional tobacco business.

Our strategy is about anticipating and satisfying the ever-evolving consumer: providing pleasure, reducing risk, offering an increasing choice and stimulating the senses of adult consumers worldwide.

Our clear purpose to build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of our business entails:

  • Committing to providing adult consumers with a wide range of enjoyable and less risky products
  • Continuing to be clear that combustible cigarettes pose serious health risks, and the only way to avoid these risks is not to start or to quit
  • Encouraging those who otherwise continue to smoke, to switch completely to scientifically-substantiated, reduced-risk alternatives* †
  • Tracking and sharing progress of our transformation

As such, alongside our traditional cigarette products, our broad portfolio of non-combustible products includes reduced-risk alternatives*† such as vapour products, tobacco heating products and modern oral nicotine pouches, as well as traditional oral products such as snus and moist snuff.

Our ambition is to continue expanding our portfolio with a wider range of enjoyable and less risky products that allow us to capture the consumer moments previously associated with tobacco use, reduce harm and satisfy evolving consumer desires.

Our approach will deliver A Better Tomorrow™ for our consumers who will have a range of enjoyable and less risky*† choices for every mood and moment; for society through reducing the overall health and environmental impacts of our business; for our employees by creating a dynamic and purposeful place to work; and for our shareholders by delivering sustainable superior returns.

We are encouraged by and proud of the progress we are making. And we are excited about what the future has in store as we continue to accelerate the transformation of our business.

* Based on the weight of evidence and assuming a complete switch from cigarette smoking. These products are not risk free and are addictive.
† Our products as sold in the US, including Vuse, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, and Camel Snus, are subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation and no reduced-risk claims will be made as to these products without FDA clearance
 

We are shaping the future

Our R&D centre in Southampton, UK.

We’re investing billions in R&D, rolling out new products to new markets and transforming ourselves as part of our purpose to build A Better Tomorrow™.

We’ve been on this journey for several years. We set an ambition to satisfy consumer moments in tobacco and beyond back in 2012 and launched our first vapour product not long after.

Since then, we have invested significant sums in research and development of New Categories of reduced-risk*† products (almost £350m every year), including vapour, tobacco heating and modern oral products.

We have become a multi-category tobacco and nicotine products business with our New Categories embedded into the heart of our company, alongside our cigarette operations.

And our clear purpose is to build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of our business.

This entails:

  • Committing to providing adult consumers with a wide range of enjoyable and less risky products
  • Continuing to be clear that combustible cigarettes pose serious health risks, and the only way to avoid these risks is not to start or to quit
  • Encouraging those who otherwise continue to smoke, to switch completely to scientifically-substantiated, reduced-risk alternatives
  • Tracking and sharing progress of our transformation.

To realise their true potential, we also need to make these products available to adult smokers in as many markets as possible, and we are now rolling them out to countries worldwide. By the end of 2021, BAT’s New Category products are now available in more than 60 markets.

To achieve a step-change in New Categories, we are building new capabilities around the world focused on science, innovation, and digital information.

Consumer preferences and technology are evolving rapidly, and we are staying ahead of the curve with our digital hubs, the creation of innovation centres and further development of our world-class R&D laboratories.

We are also leveraging the expertise of our external partners and are looking forward to exciting results from our venturing initiative.

The progress we have already made gives us confidence in achieving our stated ambition for our future – to have 50 million consumers of our non-combustible products by 2030 and to accelerate the growth of our New Category revenues at a faster rate than our total revenue, reaching £5 billion in 2025.

Building A Better Tomorrow™ is larger than BAT. Lasting change will only be achieved by a combination of similar commitments from companies like us and the support of regulators, public health bodies, politicians, media and academics.

Our role will be to make available high-quality products that are researched and produced to high standards and promoted responsibly and to encourage those who otherwise continue to smoke to switch completely to scientifically substantiated, reduced-risk alternatives. *†

* Based on the weight of evidence and assuming a complete switch from cigarette smoking. These products are not risk free and are addictive.
† Our products as sold in the US, including Vuse, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, and Camel Snus, are subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation and no reduced-risk claims will be made as to these products without FDA clearance
 

We are responsible

Members of our team in Malaysia.

As a leading multinational company, sustainability is at the heart of our transformation journey as we build A Better Tomorrow™ by reducing the health impact of our business.

As a result, we are moving from a business where sustainability has always been important, to one where it is front and centre in all that we do.

In today’s complex and challenging world, the policies, principles and programmes that guide how we work are more important than ever.

Just as we are committed to making a step change in our New Categories performance, we are also committed to making a step change in our sustainability ambition.

Supporting our ambition to build A Better Tomorrow™, we have announced a number of stretching targets that we are confident will accelerate our transformation which will benefit all our stakeholders and society, including:

  • increasing our consumers of non-combustible products to 50 million by 2030
  • achieving carbon neutrality for our own business activities by 2030 and our value chain by 2050
  • Making all packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025
  • Increasing our renewable energy use to reach 50% by 2030.

In today’s complex and challenging world, the policies, principles and programmes that guide how we work are more important than ever.

With operations and supply chains in many diverse and demanding environments around the world, protecting human rights is particularly important for us.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are an integral part of our own wide-ranging Standards of Business Conduct, which we all sign up to, making a commitment, as individuals, to operate to the highest standards.

We also have extensive checks in place throughout our supply chain and a commitment to work with suppliers if issues around human rights – such as child labour – are raised.

Responsible marketing plays an important role in growing our business, and we ensure that ours is only directed at adult consumers. We support retailers with proof-of-age schemes and awareness training and engage with governments and call for minimum age laws if none already exist.

And as the industry changes, we have expanded our guidelines on youth access prevention to cover new category products too.

Making agriculture more sustainable is one of our key aims. As part of the industry-wide Sustainable Tobacco Programme, we’re helping leaf suppliers and our contracted farmers with issues such as water and soil management, use of agrochemicals and preventing child labour.

The programme is a good example of the close working relationships we have with those who help us produce and sell our products, and how we work as partners.

 

We are partners

One of the thousands of our contracted tobacco farmers we work with in Brazil.

We pride ourselves on the strength of our relationships with our contracted farmers, suppliers and retailers – crucial business partners who are vital to our success and the sustainability of our company.

We work with c81,000 farmers contracted through BAT leaf operations worldwide and invest millions of pounds each year in leaf R&D. This helps us to develop new and innovative farming technologies and techniques, as well as safer, more efficient ways of working.

And our network of field technicians regularly visit farms to advise and train farmers, helping them grow tobacco and other crops, sustainably and successfully.

Of course, a global agricultural supply chain can be vulnerable to human rights issues such as child labour and understanding these challenges – and finding solutions – is central to our role.

Through our involvement with the industry-wide Sustainable Tobacco Programme, we review all our tobacco leaf suppliers. This is an important way of ensuring high standards are maintained and helps drive continuous improvements.

Our own programme THRIVE, allows us to take a more holistic approach to identifying and addressing long-term risks in agriculture, such as rural poverty and an ageing farming population.

These programmes also help us forge new alliances with many different stakeholders, ranging from a partnership in Brazil to help train young farmers, to work in Kenya to plant more trees and rehabilitate barren land.

We are also proud to be a founding member of the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing (ECLT) Foundation, which works with governments, tobacco companies and local communities to tackle child labour.

Alongside this, we work with millions of small, independent retailers who in turn use the experience and expertise of our trade marketing teams to build successful businesses and ensure they play a vital role in preventing underage sales.

 

We are proud of our people

The offices of Reynolds American Inc., our U.S. subsidiary, which became part of our global Group in 2017.

We hope you’ve liked what you’ve read about us. Perhaps you’d even be interested in joining us? If so, you’d be part of something special – working for a leading global company with a clear vision to build A Better Tomorrow™.

You’d also be joining a company with a clear ethos that underpins a future-fit culture that will allow us to deliver our vision. Our ethos is about being bold, fast, empowered, responsible and diverse.

The quality of our people is key to our continuing success, so attracting and developing talented people is a top priority.

Our focus is on building and inspiring diverse teams and on investing in skills and creating a working culture where passionate and driven people can thrive and reap the rewards of a fulfilling career.

Few other companies are as diverse as BAT. We employ people of 138 different nationalities, from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, in management roles across the Group. Our target is to achieve at least a 50% spread of distinct nationalities in all our regional and functional leadership teams to better mirror our consumer base. In 2022, this was achieved in all key Regional/Functional leadership teams.

We value this kind of diversity because it encourages innovation, creativity and different ways of thinking; it creates a fascinating place to work, with opportunities to collaborate with a wide range of people from various countries, cultures and with different perspectives.

We’re big on career progression for women and we’re proud to have strong female representation in our senior management teams. This progress has been driven by initiatives such as our Women in Leadership programme, while around half of our graduate intake each year is female.

We strongly believe in developing talented people from within the business and many of our appointments are promotions for ambitious people already here at BAT.

We stretch and support our people so that they can fulfil their potential. Our Global Graduate Programme, for example, includes exciting international work placements and is focused on developing our next generation of leaders.

We are also keen to attract the most talented people from outside BAT to complement and further strengthen our existing teams. They want to work for the best too, so we’re proud that in countries worldwide we’re seen as a leading employer – providing an engaging, innovative and dynamic work environment, as well as world-class learning and development opportunities.

We also know that many people want to join a business with a clear purpose that will allow them to make a difference and contribute to real change.

And as a company committed to leading change in our industry – and building A Better Tomorrow™ – this is precisely what we can offer.

Find out more about working at BAT by visiting our careers website .

  1. Based on Scope 1 and 2 carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions.
max
xlarge
large
medium
small
mobile