BAT to axe 2,300 senior jobs; focus on new products

British American Tobacco said it was axing 2,300 management jobs as it looked to simplify its structure and reinvest the savings in developing new products such as vapour, tobacco heating and oral tobacco.

The company on Thursday said more than 20% of senior roles would be affected with the redundancies expected to be completed by January 2020. BAT wants to generate £5bn in revenues from new products by 2023/24.

BAT added that the review would result in “faster decision making, greater management accountability and the elimination of duplicative activities” by reducing layers of management and creating fewer larger business units.