We're going 'all-in' on vaping, Imperial CEO says

• British tobacco firm Imperial Brands reported better-than-expected full-year adjusted profit and revenue results Tuesday.
• The maker of Gualoises and Winston cigarettes reported a net revenue of $39.83 billion for the full-year ending September 30.
• The company is shifting its focus toward the vaping market, however.

British tobacco firm Imperial Brands reported better-than-expected full-year adjusted profit and revenue results Tuesday.

Imperial, the maker Gualoises, Kool and Winston cigarettes, reported a net revenue of 30.5 billion pounds ($39.83 billion) for the full-year ending September 30. This was up from 30.2 billion pounds reported last year.

The company is shifting its focus toward the vaping market, Alison Cooper, chief executive of Imperial Brands, told CNBC on Tuesday.

"We're absolutely focused on the vaping opportunities, it's significant," Cooper told CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum.

"We've got a fantastic set of assets in the space including the (vaping) brand blu, we've got proprietary innovation and leading-edge science, all of these things support a really significant opportunity for Imperial so we are going all-in," she said.

A company logo sits on a sign standing outside the Imperial Brands Plc headquarter offices in Bristol, U.K., on Monday, July 2, 2018. Imperial Brands Plc is launching a vaping product to compete with Juul Labs Inc., as Cooper steps up efforts to reassure investors that smoking alternatives are an opportunity rather than a threat. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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The majority of smokers would prefer to switch to vaping in most of the company's markets, she said, "so that's still our out and out focus."

The company reported its net revenue up 2.1 percent with 0.9 percent from tobacco and 1.2 percent from Next Generation Products (NGP) such as ecigarettes.

"In the year ahead, we expect to deliver constant currency revenue growth at, or above, the upper end of our 1-4% revenue growth range driven by consistent growth in tobacco and an acceleration in NGP revenues," the company said in a statement released Tuesday.

The company announced that it plans to invest an additional 100 million pounds in the first half of next year in its e-cigarette brand blu. However, it cautioned that this will result in a slightly lower adjusted operating profit in the first-half that will be offset in the second half.

"In NGP our main focus is on transitioning smokers to blu, a significantly less harmful alternative to cigarettes. NGP also offers additive opportunities for our shareholders and the success of the international rollout of myblu has put us in a strong position to further invest and accelerate sales growth in FY19," Cooper said in the earnings statement.

- Reuters contributed to this report