Blue Hole New Consumer Report, May 8 news, according to foreign news reports, international tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) plans to stop selling cigarettes in Japan within 10 years.
Jacek Olczak, who took over as CEO of the company on May 5, predicted in an interview that Japan will become a smoke-free society within 10 years. PMI hopes to gradually phase out combustible tobacco products from other places in the next 10 to 15 years.
Olczak said that he hopes that this transition will take place in Japan first. The company will focus on its heat not burn (HNB) products.
In 2016, PMI began to sell its IQOS HNB equipment nationwide. According to Euromonitor International, the company accounted for 70% of the Japanese market for such products in 2019, far ahead of its competitors Japan Tobacco (10%) and British American Tobacco (20%) .
In 2020, smokeless tobacco (including HNB and e-cigarettes) accounted for 11% of Philip Morris’s total shipments of 706.4 billion cigarettes, an increase of 3 percentage points from 2019. In the past four years, the global market for combustible cigarettes has shrunk by nearly 10%.
Philip Morris’ smokeless tobacco products are sold in 66 countries and regions. Olczak said that he hopes to increase the proportion of smokeless tobacco products to 100% by 2025.
Currently, nearly 30% of all tobacco sales in Japan are heating products. The country’s success is due in part to the country’s ban on nicotine e-cigarette sales and its relatively loose regulatory framework.
When Japan banned smoking in restaurants last year, it made an exception for HNB products. If certain conditions are met (for example, equipped with ventilation equipment), HNB products can be consumed while eating or drinking.
Olchak said that Philip Morris (Philip Morris) will introduce equipment that uses new technologies and is considering expanding the functionality of heating equipment. In addition to providing age verification features to prevent minors from smoking, the company will also begin to develop an application to help smokers manage their health.
Philip Morris’ sales for the fiscal year ending in December 2020 totaled US$28.6 billion, a 4% decrease from the previous year, while net profit reached US$8 billion, an increase of 12%.
