JT buys Brazil distributor

Japan Tobacco has acquired a cigarette distributor in Brazil, a market it re-entered in 2014, according to a Nikkei Inc. story.

JT is said to have bought the entire Salvador-based Fluxo Brasil Distribuidora do Produtos SA for an undisclosed amount.

Fluxo, which has nine distribution centers and offices covering all of the country’s major states, sells lighters and other products besides tobacco.

It carried JT cigarettes before the acquisition.

JT pulled out of South America’s most populous nation in 2011, only to return three years later.

It has no factories in Brazil, so it sells there imported Camel, Winston and other cigarette brands.

JT holds less than one percent of the Brazilian market, compared with British American Tobacco’s nearly 80 percent share.