UK's Tobacco firm calls for Cigarette Ban |
| Credit: Global News |
The Announcement
• Tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) says it will stop selling cigarettes in the United Kingdom within the next decade - including the company's iconic Marlboro brand.
• Jacek Olczak, the company's CEO said, "We can see the world without cigarettes and actually, the sooner it happens, the better it is for everyone."
• PMI also said it wanted half its turnover to come from non-smoking products as it morphs into a "healthcare and wellness company" with its company" with its new mission to "unsmoke the world" by phasing out cigarettes.
Why Call For A Ban?
• The company's new mission is to find and provide less harmful alternatives to cigarettes such as heated tobacco to the millions of people who would otherwise still smoke.
• The company's efforts are part of a much wider societal change in attitudes toward smoking, especially in the United Kingdom. The U.K. government recently announced its goal to make England smoke-free by 2030 which will happen when the nation's smoking rates will be less than 5%.
What's Going To Happen Next?
• PMI is not abandoning its products made for smokers entirely. It's focusing more on developing tobacco heating systems, such as electronic cigarettes that still "create a nicotine-containing tobacco vapour," the company said.
• The move is seen as part of company's new strategy to reinvent itself as it looks to step up its ambitious plan to generate 50% of net revenue from non-smoking products by 2025.
• Taking its first steps in that direction, the company launched a 1.05 billion pound bid for British asthma drug-maker Vectura.
• It is reported that the company has already invested more than $8 Billion since 2008 on R&D of smoke-free products.
0 Comments