Analyst: Innovation, pricing key to tobacco growth

(AP) Raising prices and introducing new products, especially varieties of smokeless tobacco, remain key growth strategies for tobacco companies as smokers worldwide increasingly face tax hikes, smoking bans, health concerns and social stigma, research firm Euromonitor International said Tuesday.
Euromonitor estimates the tobacco industry's 2010 retail revenue at $660 billion, almost the same as the previous year. Most of that came from selling more than 5.71 trillion cigarettes, analysts said. Continued