December 2025: Japan Tobacco is the new cigarette market leader in Spain
Japan Tobacco (JT), the maker of Camel and Winston, snatches the cigarette market leadership in Spain for the first time in history. JT reached a market share of 27.4% at the end of November 2025, surpassing Imperial Brands-owned Altadis, the maker of Fortuna cigarettes. Altadis holds 27.2% share, while Philip Morris International (PMI), the maker of Marlboro and Chesterfield, has a 27.1% share, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Finance’s Comisionado para el Mercado de Tabacos (CMT, “Commissioner for the Tobacco Market”) agency. In the first eleven months of 2025, JT gained 1.3pp market share, while Altadis and PMI lost 0.3pp and 0.1pp, respectively.
JT has gained more than 4pp market share since 2017: from 23.1% to 27.4%. In the same period, PMI lost 5pp market share (from 32.1% to 27.1%) and Altadis lost 1.8pp market share (from 29% to 27.2%). Top-3 companies still command a combined c.82% share in the Spanish market. Outside the Top-3, British American Tobacco (BAT), the maker of Lucky Strike, continues to gradually lose market share and its share is now around 9% – down 1.5pp in 2025 and far the almost 12% reached in 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic. Small players, mostly active in the discount segment, continue to gain market share – now collectively commanding 9.3% of the Spanish cigarette market.
Despite PMI losing the market leadership at the manufacturer level, Marlboro remains the best-selling brand in Spain with 16.4% market share – up 0.3pp over the last 12 months. JT’s Camel and Winston own 12% and 9.7% share, up 0.3pp and 1.4pp, respectively. Meanwhile, Fortuna’s share is down 0.2pp to 7% and Lucky Strike’s share is down 1.0pp to 6.8%. Top-5 brands, combined, own 52% of the Spanish market.
In the first eleven months of 2025, the total market volume is down 2.2% to 38.34 billion sticks (1.917 billion packs). However, the total retail turnover is up 4.9% to €11.25 billion in the last 12 months as a result of the price increases – with average price per pack (of 20 cigarettes) reaching €5.4.
December 2025: Spain Collects €26 Million from New Vape Tax in Eight Months
The new tax on liquids for e-cigarettes has generated €26 million revenue from April 2025 through November 2025, according to the Spanish Tax Agency’s Monthly Tax Collection Report. In November alone, the Treasury collected €4 million from the new levy, a figure consistent with previous months and confirming that the tax has stabilized as a new source of fiscal income. The vape tax came into effect on April 1, 2025, three months later than the usual fiscal calendar to give the sector time to adapt. As a result, 2025 is the first fiscal year in which vapes are taxed under a specific category.
At the same time, the Government increased the tax rates on traditional tobacco products as of January 1, 2025. Through November 2025, revenue from the Tobacco Products Tax reached €6.696 billion, representing a 6% year-on-year increase. November alone brought in €728 million euros, a 12.2% rise compared to November 2024 – and the second time this year the tax exceeded €700 million. Both the vaping liquid tax and the tobacco tax are part of Spain’s Special Excise Duties levied on hydrocarbons, electricity, alcoholic beverages and nicotine products. Between January and November 2025, these excise duties contributed €21.309 billion to the State budget, 5% more than in the same period last year.
January 2025: Philip Morris International maintains its market leadership in Spain
Spain is the fourth largest cigarette market in Europe by volume, behind Germany, Italy and Poland and ahead of the UK and France. 2.6 billion packs of cigarettes are sold in Spain on an annual basis and, unlike its other Western counterparts, the Spanish market volume is pretty stable (i.e. flat to +2% annual growth). With 85 million tourists visiting the country ever year, (duty-paid) cigarette sales to tourists (especially, to the Germans and British) provide strong support to the Spanish domestic market volume (i.e. corresponding to around one in six cigarettes sold in Spain).
Philip Morris International (PMI) is the market leader in Spain with 29.2% market share, but is closely followed by Japan Tobacco (27.6%) and Imperial Brands (26.6%). British American Tobacco (BAT) is the distant fourth (11.8%) and, collectively, four international tobacco companies make up 95% of the Spanish market.
Marlboro is the best selling cigarette brand in Spain. The other leading cigarette brands in Spain are:
| Brand | Manufacturer | Share of Market | |
| 1 | Marlboro | Philip Morris International | 16.0% |
| 2 | Camel | Japan Tobacco | 11.7% |
| 3 | Winston | Japan Tobacco | 8.2% |
| 4 | Lucky Strike | British American Tobacco | 7.8% |
| 5 | Fortuna | Imperial Brands | 7.0% |
| 6 | Winston Classic | Japan Tobacco | 5.6% |
| 7 | Chesterfield | Philip Morris International | 5.5% |
| 8 | West | Imperial Brands | 5.1% |
| 9 | Nobel | Imperial Brands | 3.3% |
| 10 | Ducados | Imperial Brands | 2.4% |
A Short History of the Spanish Tobacco Market
The origins of state tobacco monopoly dates back to 1636 in Spain. The monopoly, adopted the name of Tabacalera S.A. in 1945, manufactured all tobacco products in Spain and purchased all raw tobacco produced in Spain from tobacco growers operating under a state license. The accession of Spain to the European Economic Community (EEC) required the liberalisation of the tobacco sector. In 1999, Tabacalera S.A. merged with the former French state monopoly, SEITA (Service d’Exploitation des Tabacs et Allumettes) to form a private company called Alliance Tobacco Distribution (Altadis). The agricultural part of the tobacco state monopoly was transformed in a company called the Spanish Tobacco Company in Rama S.A., S.M.E. (CETARSA) as a state company under private law with the state holding about 70% of its capital and Altadis about 20%. In 2008, Imperial Brands acquired the Franco-Spanish tobacco company, Altadis in a €16.2 billion (then US$22.4 billion) deal (including the debt) and gained significant foothold in Spain and France.
