Retail volume sales of cigarettes in Germany increased in 2024. This was despite smoking prevalence continuing to see a slow but steady decline, notably among young adults. Moreover, there is declining social acceptance of tobacco in public places, with Germany still having fewer limitations than some neighbouring countries. For example, the public smoking ban in Milan has sparked public discourse in Germany around passive smoking and its health effects, and whether further smoking bans should be implemented in Germany too.
The German tobacco market saw strong growth in current value terms in 2024, but this was mainly due to price increases. Due to an increase in the tobacco tax, cigarettes as well as e-liquids saw price increases, while cigarette smoking prevalence continued to decline. Cigarettes remains by far the most important tobacco category in Germany, with sales even increasing in volume terms in 2024, which goes against the longer-term decline in sales. The main reason for the sudden increase was due to consumers anticipating price increases in 2025 and thus making their purchases in advance to save money.
The three largest global companies – Philip Morris, Imperial Brands (represented locally by Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH), and British American Tobacco – dominate retail volume sales of tobacco in Germany. Philip Morris was able to maintain its overall leadership due to its strength in the largest category of cigarettes. It enjoys strong brand awareness with Marlboro cigarettes, while it also dominates sales of heated tobacco with its Terea and HEETS brands of heated tobacco sticks for its Iqos tobacco heating devices. British American Tobacco, with its Glo brand, remains the only major competitor to the Iqos brand in tobacco heating devices. While Glo has gained some market share, Iqos continues to dominate the market. This is likely to remain the case thanks to Philip Morris’ strong distribution network with Iqos brand being more widely available.
Cigarettes, along with heated tobacco, are widely available through grocery channels in Germany, including forecourt retailers, with no expected changes in the legislation with regard to their distribution over the forecast period. Vending also remains a major channel for tobacco sales and even offers these products in rural areas where vending machines are sometimes the only easily accessible option. For vending as a whole, tobacco remains the most important product, as this channel is not particularly popular in Germany.
Smoking prevalence of cigarettes is expected to remain at a relatively high level in Germany compared to other European countries, despite predictions for a further decline in volume sales. This is likely to be linked to reduction in the number of young adult smokers, alongside an increasing shift towards perceived reduced risk next generation products. However, as part of the latest tobacco tax update, vaping has become more expensive as well. Partially, this has led to an increase of the illicit market. Despite this, smokeless tobacco categories such as e-vapour products and heated tobacco are taking an increasing value share of the tobacco market in Germany.
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Tobacco
Passport Tobacco covers the seven major tobacco categories: Cigarettes, Cigars & Cigarillos, Smoking tobacco (made up of Pipe tobacco and RYO tobacco), Smokeless Tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco), E-Vapour Products (closed and open); Heated Tobacco; and Tobacco Free Oral Nicotine. Smoking paraphernalia such as pipes, rolling papers, lighters or matches, etc., are not included, nor are nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, which are part of Euromonitor's Passport Consumer Healthcare database.
See all of our definitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Tobacco research and analysis database.
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