JT to stop marketing 12 tobacco brands

TOKYO -- Japan Tobacco Inc. will abolish 12 relatively new tobacco brands, nine of whose marketing areas were limited to certain Japanese districts to gauge consumer interest, company officials said Wednesday.

The decision attests to the difficulty JT faces in securing consumer demand for tobacco products released in recent years amid the surge in Japan's antismoking awareness.

The nine include Siesta brand cigarettes, marketed only in Hyogo Prefecture, and high-grade Rin cigarettes, sold solely in the Hokuriku district including Ishikawa, Fukui and Kyoto prefectures, the officials said.

The remaining three, including the Salem Box, have been marketed across Japan.

The discontinuation of the 12 brands will limit the number of JT tobacco brands to 103.

JT has pursued a midterm business program since 2003 under which it has sought to limit the number of its tobacco brands. It categorized its top 60 sellers such as Mild Seven, Seven Stars and the Caster series of cigarettes as core brands. The rest it designated as replaceable, depending on their sales performance.

The firm has followed a strategy of releasing new tobacco brands only on a regional basis and expanding the marketing areas of brands that post certain sales.

The company has sought to increase the number of popular brands by examining the performance of various brands and replacing unpopular brands while keeping at least 80 brands constantly available.

Including the 12 brands to be abolished, the firm's marketing of a total of 21 of the 46 tobacco brands it released from fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2005 has ceased or is ceasing.