West Indian Tobacco Company Limited

What it is

West Indian Tobacco (Witco) was established in 1904 by John Phillips, the founder of the tobacco business in Trinidad and Tobago. The manufacturing plant moved from Port-of-Spain to Champs Fleurs in 1948, and today supplies 26 brands in 166 product lines to the local market and to 16 CARICOM member and associate countries.

Locally, Witco distributes through roughly 7,000 retail outlets across Trinidad and Tobago, with three main brands — Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Rothmans — in 17 lines. The company is publicly listed and held by over 3,000 shareholders.

Who owns it

The largest shareholder is British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited, with a 50.13% stake — just enough to control the company while leaving the rest for the public market. The National Insurance Board of Trinidad and Tobago is the second-largest shareholder with 9.01%.

The remaining roughly 40.9% is free float traded on the TTSE, making Witco one of the significantly capitalised names on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange. It operates formally as a subsidiary of British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited.

Who runs it

Ingrid Lashley is Chair of West Indian Tobacco Company. Managing Director Raoul Glynn was placed on administrative leave with pay from 24 June 2024, pending an internal investigation, with Hiram Murillo appointed as acting Managing Director.

As of the most recent public reporting (Q1 2025), Murillo’s acting status had not formally changed, leaving the company’s executive leadership in a holding pattern that the board had not publicly resolved. Six new directors joined the board in the past three years, though none were independent, leaving the board with only three independent directors out of eleven.

The money, in plain words

In 2024, Witco earned TTD 623.5m (USD 92.5m) in revenue — every dollar coming from tobacco sales — but that was 17.4% less than the year before (our calculation), as fewer local consumers bought cigarettes and those who did switched to cheaper brands. Audited after-tax profit for 2024 was TTD 177.6m (USD 26.3m — our calculation), down from TTD 277.1m (US$41 mn) in 2023.

Still, Witco kept about 28.5 cents of profit from every dollar of sales — a net profit margin of 28.5% (our calculation) — which is high even by tobacco-industry standards, reflecting just how dominant a near-monopoly supplier can remain even as its volumes slide. Earnings per share fell to TT$0.70 (US$0.10)from TT$1.10 (US$0.16)in 2023, a decline of 36.4%.

The stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.84×, a discount to the global tobacco industry average of around 11–12×.

The dividend yield of 14.19% looks exceptional, but the dividend is not adequately covered by earnings — the payout ratio is around 96% — though it is covered by cash flows at a 74% rate. Put plainly: Witco is paying out nearly everything it earns, relying on cash generation rather than accounting profit to keep the cheque going.

What it is doing now

In Q1 2025, Witco reported revenue of TTD 83.1m (US$12 mn), an 11.3% rise over the same period in 2024 — a gain the Chair linked directly to the launch of Vuse, the company’s premium vaping product. After-tax profit for Q1 2025 was TTD 14.7m (US$2 mn), a 9% improvement over the TTD 13.5m (US$2 mn) in Q1 2024.

The company flagged uncertainty from US tariff policy and, citing that volatility, deferred the declaration of a first-quarter 2025 dividend — a cautious signal from a company that historically paid without hesitation. Witco recorded 18% quarter-on-quarter growth in Vuse sales after launch, which it cited as evidence of consumer acceptance of the vaping product.

What to watch

• MD vacancy: An unresolved leadership investigation has left Witco without a permanent Managing Director for over a year — unusual for any company, acute for one navigating a structural industry decline.
• Volume erosion: Volume performance did not meet expectations in 2024, with demand for lower-priced products surging and intensifying competition. How fast that erosion continues will decide whether margins hold.
• Vuse ramp: The company has moved to a multi-category portfolio with Vuse and is exploring further innovation. Vaping is still a small fraction of revenue; it needs to grow faster than cigarettes shrink.
• Dividend sustainability: A payout ratio near 100% of earnings leaves no buffer; any further profit decline forces a choice between cutting the dividend or drawing on cash reserves.
• BAT parent strategy: BAT globally is targeting 29.1 million adult consumers of smokeless products, which now represent 17.5% of Group revenue. How aggressively it pushes that transition through Witco will shape the next chapter.

This is news, not investment advice.