A tobacco company like Philip Morris has unequivocally announced that it will stop selling cigarettes in the UK. Their products should disappear from the shelves within ten years, CEO Jacek Olczak told Britain’s The Mail on Sunday.
With cigarette brands such as Marlboro, Chesterfield and L&M, Philip Morris International is one of the largest tobacco companies in the world. In 2020, the company made a net profit of $ 28.7 billion. Compared to the previous year, sales decreased by about four percent. The US business is overseen by the former parent company Altria. In the UK alone, annual revenues amount to almost one billion euros.
Despite high revenues, CEO Olczak wants his company to “put smoking behind.” His message acts as a program to support the UK government, which in 2019 announced a plan to rid the country of cigarette smoke by 2030. Authorities want the share of smokers to fall below 5%. According to a report by the Ministry of Health, currently 14% of Britons smoke. The same document says that cigarettes will be responsible for the deaths of more people than the coronavirus this year.
The commitment to the gradual promotion of traditional cigarettes in the United States is due to the behavior of consumers and investors. The living expenses in the country are already relatively low, while the cigarettes are heavily taxed and since 2016 they have been sold in ordinary stores, Invest writes.
Philip Morris realizes that the creeping but steady decline of conventional cigarettes in the coming decades cannot be stopped, and for years has focused on alternative and supposedly less harmful nicotine products. For younger target groups, classic cigarettes are almost taboo – they are increasingly targeting e-cigarettes or similar products.
Consumers should quit smoking, Olczak says, – that would be the best solution. “But if they don’t, then the second choice will be to move to a better alternative.” Of course, Philip Morris himself already has a “better alternative: Iqos. This is a pen-like device in which small tobacco rods are inserted, which are heated to 350 degrees with a ceramic heating blade.
Philip Morris praises the device as a less harmful alternative to the classic cigarette, as the tobacco heats up rather than burns, as with the classic cigarette. This can prevent the absorption of certain toxins such as carbon monoxide.
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (Germany) supports this statement. The Office concludes that tobacco heaters produce fewer harmful substances, such as carcinogens, than conventional tobacco products. However, a long-term study of health risks is needed. And besides: damage to health is by no means excluded.
Philip Morris already generates almost a quarter of its worldwide sales with its alternative products, much more than, for example, the competition from Imperial Tobacco. According to PhilipMorris, global sales of tobacco sticks for tobacco heaters have increased tenfold from about 7.4 billion in 2016 to about 76 billion in 2020.
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