Marlboro Maker CEO Says The Company Plans To Stop Selling Smokes In The U.K.
A pack of Marlboro cigarettes at a store in Miami. Philip Morris International’s CEO Jacek Olczak said the company will stop selling Marlboro cigarettes in the U.K. in the next 10 years. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption
Creating A Smoke-free Future: How PMI Is Changing The Tobacco Industry (Forever)
A pack of Marlboro cigarettes at a store in Miami. Philip Morris International’s CEO Jacek Olczak said the company will stop selling Marlboro cigarettes in the U.K. in the next 10 years.
Tobacco giant Philip Morris International says it will stop selling cigarettes in the United Kingdom within the next decade — including the company’s iconic Marlboro brand.
“It will disappear,” the company’s CEO Jacek Olczak said in an interview with The Mail on Sunday. “The first choice for consumers is they should quit smoking. But if they don’t, the second best choice is to let them switch to the better alternatives.”
The development is part of Philip Morris International’s reinvention as it abandons traditional tobacco products.
Olczak became the company‘s CEO in May and plans to lead the company’s “smoke-free” transformation. He said the company’s new mission is to find and provide “less harmful alternatives to cigarettes” to the millions of people who would otherwise still smoke.
In May, he said, “Our ambition is that more than half of our net revenues will come from smoke-free products in 2025.”
Philip Morris International is not affiliated with Philip Morris USA, which sells Marlboro in the U.S., where the brand has more sales than the next seven leading competitors combined.
The pushback against cigarettes is tied to the health problems caused by smoking highly addictive tobacco. Dave Martin/AP hide caption
The pushback against cigarettes is tied to the health problems caused by smoking highly addictive tobacco.
U.K. aims for smoke-free future, too
The company’s efforts are part of a much wider societal change in attitudes toward smoking, especially in the United Kingdom. The government recently announced its goal to make England smoke-free by 2030. The U.K will be considered “smoke-free” when the nation’s smoking rates are less than 5%.
The pushback against cigarettes over the past several years is tied to the severe health problems caused by smoking highly addictive tobacco around the world.
The World Health Organization says that “the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.” It kills more than 8 million people a year — 7 million of those deaths are directly linked to tobacco use, according to the WHO. than 1 million other deaths are from nonsmokers being exposed to secondhand smoke.
FDA Moves To Ban Cigarettes And Flavored Cigars
Citing the nation’s chief medical officer, a recent U.K. government report said smoking will kill more people in the U.K. than COVID-19, both this year and in 2020.
“Recent analysis shows it kills up to two thirds of long-term users,” the report said.
About 14% of the U.K. adult population smoke. Based on current trends, the most disadvantaged communities will not be smoke-free until 2045, according to the report.
Scotland’s ambition is to achieve this smoke-free goal by 2034, with no dates set yet for Wales or Northern Ireland.
Philip Morris bets on cigarette alternatives
A woman exhales while vaping from a Juul pen e-cigarette in Vancouver, Wash., in 2019. Philip Morris is manufacturing its own type of electronic cigarette. The company does not make Juul pens. Craig Mitchelldyer/AP hide caption
A woman exhales while vaping from a Juul pen e-cigarette in Vancouver, Wash., in 2019. Philip Morris is manufacturing its own type of electronic cigarette. The company does not make Juul pens.
Philip Morris International is not abandoning products geared toward smokers entirely despite its pledge.
It’s focusing more on developing tobacco heating systems, such as electronic cigarettes that still “create a nicotine-containing tobacco vapor,” the company said.
Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul E-cigarettes
The cigarette maker says on its website “smoke-free products” are not “risk free” but “are a far better choice than cigarette smoking.”
Philip Morris recently announced it will acquire Vectura Group, a British pharmaceuticals company that produces inhalers, and Denmark-based Fertin Pharma, a nicotine gum maker. The purchase of Vectura drew criticism from people who found issue with a tobacco company, that while still making money from cigarettes, is positioning itself as one that is anti-smoking.
Correction July 26, 2021
A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olczak spoke with The Daily Mail newspaper. In fact, he spoke with The Mail on Sunday.
Marlboro Maker CEO Says The Company Plans To Stop Selling Smokes In The U.K.
A pack of Marlboro cigarettes at a store in Miami. Philip Morris International’s CEO Jacek Olczak said the company will stop selling Marlboro cigarettes in the U.K. in the next 10 years. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption
A pack of Marlboro cigarettes at a store in Miami. Philip Morris International’s CEO Jacek Olczak said the company will stop selling Marlboro cigarettes in the U.K. in the next 10 years.
Tobacco giant Philip Morris International says it will stop selling cigarettes in the United Kingdom within the next decade — including the company’s iconic Marlboro brand.
“It will disappear,” the company’s CEO Jacek Olczak said in an interview with The Mail on Sunday. “The first choice for consumers is they should quit smoking. But if they don’t, the second best choice is to let them switch to the better alternatives.”
The development is part of Philip Morris International’s reinvention as it abandons traditional tobacco products.
Olczak became the company’s CEO in May and plans to lead the company’s “smoke-free” transformation. He said the company’s new mission is to find and provide “less harmful alternatives to cigarettes” to the millions of people who would otherwise still smoke.
In May, he said, “Our ambition is that more than half of our net revenues will come from smoke-free products in 2025.”
Philip Morris International is not affiliated with Philip Morris USA, which sells Marlboro in the U.S., where the brand has more sales than the next seven leading competitors combined.
The pushback against cigarettes is tied to the health problems caused by smoking highly addictive tobacco. Dave Martin/AP hide caption
The pushback against cigarettes is tied to the health problems caused by smoking highly addictive tobacco.
U.K. aims for smoke-free future, too
The company’s efforts are part of a much wider societal change in attitudes toward smoking, especially in the United Kingdom. The government recently announced its goal to make England smoke-free by 2030. The U.K will be considered “smoke-free” when the nation’s smoking rates are less than 5%.
The pushback against cigarettes over the past several years is tied to the severe health problems caused by smoking highly addictive tobacco around the world.
The World Health Organization says that “the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.” It kills more than 8 million people a year — 7 million of those deaths are directly linked to tobacco use, according to the WHO. than 1 million other deaths are from nonsmokers being exposed to secondhand smoke.
FDA Moves To Ban Cigarettes And Flavored Cigars
“Recent analysis shows it kills up to two thirds of long-term users,” the report said.
Philip Morris calls for UK to ban cigarettes by 2030
About 14% of the U.K. adult population smoke. Based on current trends, the most disadvantaged communities will not be smoke-free until 2045, according to the report.
Scotland’s ambition is to achieve this smoke-free goal by 2034, with no dates set yet for Wales or Northern Ireland.
Philip Morris bets on cigarette alternatives
A woman exhales while vaping from a Juul pen e-cigarette in Vancouver, Wash., in 2019. Philip Morris is manufacturing its own type of electronic cigarette. The company does not make Juul pens. Craig Mitchelldyer/AP hide caption
A woman exhales while vaping from a Juul pen e-cigarette in Vancouver, Wash., in 2019. Philip Morris is manufacturing its own type of electronic cigarette. The company does not make Juul pens.
Philip Morris International is not abandoning products geared toward smokers entirely despite its pledge.
It’s focusing more on developing tobacco heating systems, such as electronic cigarettes that still “create a nicotine-containing tobacco vapor,” the company said.
Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul E-cigarettes
The cigarette maker says on its website “smoke-free products” are not “risk free” but “are a far better choice than cigarette smoking.”
Philip Morris recently announced it will acquire Vectura Group, a British pharmaceuticals company that produces inhalers, and Denmark-based Fertin Pharma, a nicotine gum maker. The purchase of Vectura drew criticism from people who found issue with a tobacco company, that while still making money from cigarettes, is positioning itself as one that is anti-smoking.
Correction July 26, 2021
A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olczak spoke with The Daily Mail newspaper. In fact, he spoke with The Mail on Sunday.
Philip Morris International
Philip Morris International (PMI) launches Cloud Transformation Program to support business evolution.
The Challenge
As part of the transformation towards smoke-free products, PMI wishes to re-engineer the way it does business: gaining efficiency and driving innovation by standardizing and automating processes and leveraging Cloud technologies.
To achieve this, PMI established a Cloud Transformation Program and engaged Cloudreach’s Team in Switzerland and AWS Professional Services to drive these initiatives to:
- Migrate and modernize 500 applications
- Execute the mass migration to AWS starting in 2021
- Develop a self-service layer on AWS
The Solution
Cloudreach engineers worked with the PMI Cloud Business Office (CBO) and trained PMI technical staff on key Cloud tools and technologies to allow them to onboard their own customers onto the DEEP (AWS) platform.
With support from PMI operational teams, Cloudreach’s Cloudamize software was rolled out to 5,000 servers in the PMI Data Centers. Cloudreach architects and engineers were embedded into PMI migration teams to assess legacy on-premise applications for re-platforming on AWS.
Cloudreach’s software engineers then modernized legacy Microsoft application and database code to open source. Finally, Cloudreach’s engineers provisioned the Cloud infrastructure and set up deployment pipelines to streamline and automate application deployment in the Cloud.
The Outcome
Since Cloudreach came on board, PMI has realized significant achievements and milestones:
- PMI’s DEEP (AWS) engineers are successfully onboarding internal customers to the DEEP (AWS) platform, helping them to provision their own Cloud infrastructures and set up their own automated application deployment pipelines.
- PMI is maintaining an up-to-date inventory list and managing the strategic vendor migration plan.
- PMI has migrated a number of pilot applications to the DEEP (AWS) platform and has overcome the complex technical challenge of re-platforming Windows applications and databases to Open Source.
Philip Morris International
Philip Morris International (PMI) is a leading international tobacco company, with a diverse workforce of around 74,000 people across the globe and products in 61 markets. PMI’s is transforming and focusing its business on smoke-free products to replace cigarettes as soon as possible
The A List 2022
In a year of ever-increasing environmental concerns around the world – from extreme weather to unprecedented losses to nature – the need for transformational, urgent and collaborative change is more critical than ever.
CDP holds the largest environmental database in the world, and this year scored nearly 15,000 companies on their climate change, forests and water security disclosures.
These 330 companies are leading the way in environmental transparency and performance on climate change, deforestation and water security.
companiesmade the 2022Forests A List
What is leadership?
By scoring companies from A to D-, we take them on a journey through disclosure to awareness, management, and finally to leadership. Our scoring measures the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets.
The bar on what qualifies as climate, forests and water leadership is regularly lifted in line with emerging environmental science, feedback from stakeholders, and market needs. Although companies that achieve an A are among the most transparent when it comes to disclosure and performance on climate change, deforestation or water security, they are not at the end of their environmental journey.
Learn more about CDP scoring in our overview, or read our detailed scoring methodologies below:
Mainstreaming transparency
CDP disclosure and scores play a key role in keeping companies on a journey of continuous environmental improvement. In 2022, a record-breaking 18,700 companies representing half of global market capitalization disclosed through CDP – 42% more than last year, and over 233% more than when the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.
CDP’s questionnaires are fully aligned with the recommendations of the TCFD (Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure), and ideally positioned to mainstream the widespread adoption of other emerging frameworks and standards.
The number of disclosing companies has grown each year since 2003.
than 18,700 companies disclosed their climate, forests and water security impacts through CDP in 2022.
Of nearly 15,000 companies scored, 330 made it onto this year’s A List. These companies are leading the way in environmental transparency.
A List companies hail from around the world, with more in Europe than any other region.
From disclosure to action
Explore the benefits of disclosure, how to unlock the power of your supply chain, and how other companies are taking action in the environmental transition.
