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BAT Half-Year Report: VELO Is Driving the Modern Oral Push

BAT says Modern Oral revenue rose 65.9% in the first half, putting VELO at the center of its smokeless growth strategy.

PouchDaily Desk·
BAT Half-Year Report: VELO Is Driving the Modern Oral Push

British American Tobacco's half-year results put VELO and its wider Modern Oral business at the center of the company's growth story.

BAT published its results for the six months to 30 June 2026 on 30 July. The headline is not just that new categories grew — it is that Modern Oral, the category that includes VELO, is now doing the heaviest lifting inside BAT's transformation.

BAT H1 2026: VELO and Modern Oral growth

The numbers that matter

  • Modern Oral revenue rose 65.9% year-on-year at constant currency.
  • New Categories revenue rose 18.0%.
  • Smokeless products now represent 19.8% of BAT's group revenue, up 1.6 percentage points versus full-year 2025.
  • BAT says it now has 35 million adult Smokeless consumers.
  • Modern Oral reached 39.2% volume share in BAT's top markets.
  • In the United States, New Categories revenue increased 58.1%.

Those numbers cover BAT's broader portfolio, but VELO is the key pouch brand behind the Modern Oral growth story. BAT's own pre-close update said VELO continued to deliver strong revenue and category contribution globally.

Why VELO matters to BAT

BAT is trying to move its business away from combustible tobacco and toward products it calls New Categories: Modern Oral, Vapour and other smokeless products. In the first half, Modern Oral was the standout.

That gives VELO a role beyond being one product line. It is part of BAT's answer to a much bigger business question: can nicotine pouches grow fast enough to replace some of the revenue and profit that traditional cigarettes have historically provided?

The company says the Modern Oral momentum is visible across all three regions. In the U.S., BAT also expects the planned rollout of Velo Max in the second half of 2026 to add to its performance.

The important caveat

BAT's figures are company-reported results, and the growth rates are presented at constant currency where stated. They show commercial momentum — not that every market is growing at the same rate, and not that the regulatory outlook is settled.

The 39.2% volume-share figure applies to BAT's top markets, not the whole world. Likewise, the 35 million figure covers BAT's Smokeless portfolio, not VELO users alone.

What happens next

BAT is guiding for continued mid-teens New Category revenue growth for the full year. The second half will show whether the momentum can hold as the company rolls out Velo Max in the U.S. and continues investing in Modern Oral across its markets.

For the pouch industry, the signal is clear: BAT is no longer treating nicotine pouches as a side category. It is building its transformation around them.

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