Table 2.

Profitability (measured using the EBITA margin (%)) for Europe's two major tobacco companies and comparator European consumer staple companies

Company	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008*	2009*	2010*	2011*
Tobacco companies
British American Tobacco	24.0	28.1	28.7	30.0	30.7	31.1	32.1	33.7
Imperial Tobacco Group	40.2	41.5	42.9	45.0	28.2	37.7	39.4	39.5
Food companies
Cadbury	15.6	15.9	14.4	13.5	12.0	13.0	13.8	14.9
Danone	12.7	13.1	13.3	12.1	14.4	16.9	15.7	15.9
Nestle	12.7	12.9	13.5	14.0	14.3	14.4	13.0	13.2
Premier Foods	12.9	13.7	13.8	12.5	11.9	12.0	11.9	11.7
Consumer products companies
Unilever NV	15.5	14.8	14.3	14.5	14.6	14.7	14.9	15.1
Henkel	9.4	9.7	10.2	10.5	10.3	9.0	10.6	11.6
L'Oreal	15.3	15.6	16.4	16.6	15.5	14.3	14.9	15.5
Reckitt Benckiser	19.3	20.1	21.5	22.6	23.4	23.9	23.2	23.6
Beverage companies
Heineken NV	13.6	13.1	13.0	14.8	13.2	13.5	14.0	14.4
SABMiller	18.1	20.2	16.9	16.8	16.6	16.8	17.3	18.5
Carlsberg	8.8	8.7	9.6	11.5	13.2	16.0	16.3	17.1
Diageo	28.7	29.0	28.2	28.3	28.5	28.9	31.5	31.8

Various Citigroup ‘Consumer Central’ business analyst investment reports.

^*Estimated values