PJ Carroll profits fall to €4.8m

TOBACCO firm PJ Carroll saw its pre-tax profits plunge from €10.1m to €4.8m last year as the number of cigarettes smoked in Ireland fell to 4.5 billion from 5.1bn.

The Dublin-headquartered company, which is owned by British American Tobacco, said the total market volume decline of cigarettes was 11.6% last year and the decline was primarily due to the growth in illicit trade.

PJ Carroll, which has a market share of 15.5% lags behind Gallahers and Imperial Tobacco, which hold about 75%.