A future without cigarettes is within reach—we are playing our part to get there as soon as possible.
Our progress
Led by science and innovation, PMI’s goal is to end the sale of cigarettes.
We are delivering smoke-free products that are a better choice for adults than continued smoking.
Our ambition is to become substantially smoke-free by 2030, with our smoke-free business generating over two-thirds of total net revenues.
Our progress toward a smoke-free future as of Q3 2024
-
![C24002_Spotlight_icons_150x150_PMI_process-;age_icon_150x150_1]()
38 percent
of PMI’s total net revenues came from our smoke-free business.
-
![C24002_Spotlight_icons_150x150_PMI_process-page_icon_150x150_6]()
36.5 million
estimated total adult users of PMI’s smoke-free products. ¹
-
![C24002_Spotlight_icons_150x150_PMI_process-;age_icon_150x150_4]()
92 markets
where our smoke-free products are available.
-
![C24002_Spotlight_icons_150x150_PMI_process-;age_icon_150x150_5]()
USD >12.5 billion
invested to develop, scientifically substantiate, and commercialize smoke-free products since 2008. ²
1 As of June 30, 2024. 2 As of December 31, 2023. Important Note: This information should be read in conjunction with the Philip Morris International Inc. earnings release dated October 22, 2024, as well as the accompanying glossary of key terms, definitions, explanatory notes, select financial information and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures, both of which are available on our Investor Relations pages. “PMI” refers to Philip Morris International Inc. and its subsidiaries.
Emmanuel Babeau shares his highlights from our Q3 Results
Our third quarter results are out.
Following an excellent first half,
we delivered another
outstanding performance in Q3.
All key elements of the business performed
at or above expectations,
with our smoke-free business
accelerating on an underlying basis.
Our heated tobacco unit volumes delivered
a step-up in adjusted
in-market sales growth in Q3,
as we saw strong momentum supported by
our commercial programs, including events
to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of
the launch of IQOS,
our leading heated tobacco product.
Nicotine pouch shipment volumes were at
the higher end of our expectations,
with a significant sequential step up to deliver
growth in the U.S.
of over 40% year on year.
We had a small but growing contribution
from our e-vapor business, as we saw
continued volume momentum
led by our closed pod offering.
And finally, our combustible business
delivered a very good quarter led by
strong pricing and resilient volumes.
Q3 net revenues grew close to 12% organically,
driven by best-in-class
volumes and pricing.
Additionally, we delivered substantial
margin expansion and earnings growth,
resulting in +18% adjusted earnings per share growth
in constant currency, and over 14% on a dollar basis.
Our overall Q3 performance epitomized
the strengths of our strategy, with underlying
momentum across categories bolstered
by our proactive measures on
pricing and cost efficiencies.
It’s time to make smoking history
Voiceover: Jacek Olczak, CEO, Philip Morris International
This company wants to change the world.
If we can get there this is going to be really phenomenal.
Fast-paced music starts
Words on screen read: That’s why at Philip Morris International, we’ve committed to deliver a smoke-free future.
Voiceover: Stefano Volpetti, President, Smoke-Free Inhaled Products & Chief Consumer Officer, PMI.
This company has had the courage, the vision and leadership to establish a new direction.
Voiceover: Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, PMI
It's very difficult for a company to sign up for a big transformation
like this.
Words on screen read: Our ambition? To move away from cigarettes.
Voiceover: Stacey Kennedy, President Americas Region and CEO of PMI’s U.S. business:
We are building our company's future around better alternatives to smoking .
Voiceover: Michael Voegele, Chief Digital and Information Officer, PMI:
I think it's a unique challenge being part of a team that revolutionizes the industry
Words on screen read: Since 2008, we’ve invested over 12.5 billion dollars in scientific substantiated smoke-free products.
Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, speaks:
So , we've become a company that's centered on bringing better options to people.
Voiceover: Jacek Olczak, CEO, Philip Morris International
In just 10 years, we could be saying to people: “Remember when people smoked?”
Words on screen read: By 2030, we aim to have more than two-thirds
of our net revenue come from smoke-free business.
We were at 38 percent (as of September 30, 2024).
Source: PMI Q 3 Results 2024
Voiceover: Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer: The facts are out there, and they’re clearly verified and verifiable.
Voiceover: Lars Dahlgren, President, Smoke-Free Oral Products and CEO, Swedish Match:
I've been impressed with the boldness of PMI articulating that the future is smoke free products.
Words on screen read: Currently our smoke-free products are available in 9 2 markets
Source: PMI Q 3 Results 2024
Voiceover: Dr Badrul Chowdhury, Chief Life Sciences Officer, Smoke-Free Products:
You actually have a product where the hundred or so chemicals which are known to be harmful are reduced or eliminated. That's the scientific breakthrough.
Voiceover: Dr Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, PMI:
This is transforming the entire industry.
Voiceover: Jacek Olczak, CEO, Philip Morris International:
The evidence is clear. Smoke-free alternatives can accelerate the end of smoking.
The world has to move now to help smokers to move to the better alternative.
Words on screen read: 30.8 million adults globally are using our leading heated tobacco product, of which 2 2.1 million have switched completely and stopped smoking.
Approximate numbers as of June 30, 2024. Source: PMI Q2 Results 2024.
Voiceover: Jacek Olczak, CEO, Philip Morris International:
It's time to make smoking history.
Philip Morris International logo is seen on screen.
How do we achieve a smoke-free future?
Jacek Olczak, CEO of Philip Morris International, speaks to camera:
Why are we denying people access to the information about these products?
Music starts
Words are seen on screen: Governments can help end cigarettes by adopting a balanced approach to the regulation of smoke-free products.
Lars Dahlgren, President, Smoke-Free Oral Products & CEO, Swedish Match, speaks to camera:
Authorities and politicians and regulators they have the opportunity to influence the consumer choice.
Stacey Kennedy, President, Americas Region and CEO of PMI’s U.S. business, speaks to camera:
If we just expect the 1 billion smokers on the planet to just stop, history over the past decades has told us that's simply not going to happen.
Jacek Olczak speaks to camera:
If we continue with that policy the only thing which we'll achieve is that they will extend the life of cigarettes in the market for decades - not for years - for decades.
Dr Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, speaks to camera:
People think, ‘Well all the policies we put in place that have got us here, they will be fine for the future.’
But actually there's a better way.
Stefano Volpetti, President, Smoke-Free Inhaled Products and Chief Consumer Officer, speaks to camera:
Give consumers access to smoke-free alternatives and the right information about them.
Dr Moira Gilchrist, speaks to camera:
We have a very extensive board idea of science that shows unequivocally that these products are better than smoking.
Lars Dahlgren, speaks to camera:
Make the products available to consumers in a responsible way, then consumers will start making the journey and discover the benefits.
Stefano Volpetti, speaks to camera:
Provide better alternatives to all smokers, provide a range of technologies, user experiences, taste and price points that can cater for all smokers around the world.
Dr Moira Gilchrist, speaks to camera:
It's not going to be one product that suits the needs of every single person who smokes.
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, PMI, speaks to camera:
When we ask people to quit smoking and change to smoke-free products, their taste, their preferences will be different, will be diverse.
Having a few product categories, having a few choices for our consumers, it will make them easiest to switch
Jacek Olczak, speaks to camera:
I’m very open to having a very mature conversation how we can orchestrate the system? How we can orchestrate the policy with different interventions, alternatives products... what else we can do about the smokable products, etc, which ultimately will drive to the full elimination of cigarettes.
Philip Morris International’s logo is seen on screen.
Delivering a better, smoke-free future.
Why are we denying people access to the information about these products?
Music starts
Words are seen on screen: Governments can help end cigarettes by adopting a balanced approach to the regulation of smoke-free products.
Lars Dahlgren, President, Smoke-Free Oral Products & CEO, Swedish Match, speaks to camera:
Authorities and politicians and regulators they have the opportunity to influence the consumer choice.
Stacey Kennedy, President, Americas Region and CEO of PMI’s U.S. business, speaks to camera:
If we just expect the 1 billion smokers on the planet to just stop, history over the past decades has told us that's simply not going to happen.
Jacek Olczak speaks to camera:
If we continue with that policy the only thing which we'll achieve is that they will extend the life of cigarettes in the market for decades - not for years - for decades.
Dr Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, speaks to camera:
People think, ‘Well all the policies we put in place that have got us here, they will be fine for the future.’
But actually there's a better way.
Stefano Volpetti, President, Smoke-Free Inhaled Products and Chief Consumer Officer, speaks to camera:
Give consumers access to smoke-free alternatives and the right information about them.
Dr Moira Gilchrist, speaks to camera:
We have a very extensive board idea of science that shows unequivocally that these products are better than smoking.
Lars Dahlgren, speaks to camera:
Make the products available to consumers in a responsible way, then consumers will start making the journey and discover the benefits.
Stefano Volpetti, speaks to camera:
Provide better alternatives to all smokers, provide a range of technologies, user experiences, taste and price points that can cater for all smokers around the world.
Dr Moira Gilchrist, speaks to camera:
It's not going to be one product that suits the needs of every single person who smokes.
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, PMI, speaks to camera:
When we ask people to quit smoking and change to smoke-free products, their taste, their preferences will be different, will be diverse.
Having a few product categories, having a few choices for our consumers, it will make them easiest to switch
Jacek Olczak, speaks to camera:
I’m very open to having a very mature conversation how we can orchestrate the system? How we can orchestrate the policy with different interventions, alternatives products... what else we can do about the smokable products, etc, which ultimately will drive to the full elimination of cigarettes.
Philip Morris International’s logo is seen on screen.
Delivering a better, smoke-free future.
Celebrating 10 years Of smoke-free progress
Our “PMI: A Story of Innovation” video series takes a fascinating deep dive into the early days of our transformation, the successes we’ve achieved, and the problems we’ve overcome since launching our leading heated tobacco product a decade ago.
Episode 3 – “We’re Going to Launch”
André Calantzopoulos, Chairman of the Board, Philip Morris International (PMI), sitting in an office, speaking to camera:
We overestimated our capabilities to commercialize this product
and underestimated all the things that may go wrong.
Music rises and graphics appear showing early designs and the evolution of PMI's heated tobacco products from 1990 to 2023.
Text shows title of video: PMI - A Story of Innovation - #03: We’re Going to Launch
Bin Li, Chief Product Officer, PMI, speaks:
How do we turn a brilliant innovation into a real, reliable consumer product?
Moira Gilchrist, Chief Communications Officer, PMI, sitting in an office, speaking to camera:
André Calantzopoulos went to investors in one of the investor calls
and told them that we would be launching our heated tobacco product
the following year on the market for real consumers to buy.
We felt we did not have a chance to be able to make it happen.
But I think, looking back now, he did that very purposefully
because we were tweaking everything and we would never have been satisfied.
So, I think he put a stake in the ground to say it would be done in the following calendar year.
Scott Coutts, Senior Vice President, Operations, PMI:
We’re going to launch and we’re going to make mistakes,
and we need to be able to do that in a small enough scale in each of the different launch markets,
but at the same time having the ability to be able to quickly turn on the overall supply chain, to be able to react to that.
Graphic appears showing a rocket drawing and an on switch.
Text reads: We’re going to launch in a small enough scale. Ability to be able to quickly turn on the overall supply chain.
Stefano Volpetti, President Smoke-free Inhalable Products & Chief Commercial Officer, PMI, speaks:
When you are trying to do something that nobody has ever done before,
the probability that you will fail, the probability that it will be two steps forward, one step backwards, is very, very high.
Lisa Hook, Member of the Board of Directors, PMI, speaks to camera:
In the real world, in the operating world, we knew that these products
were so compelling that it was just a matter of time before they succeeded.
Serge Maeder, Global Head of RRP System Innovation, PMI, sitting in an open-plan office, speaking to camera:
And I think, when we finally put this product on the market,
it was a big relief to everybody because, the day you on are the market, this is no longer confidential.
Graphic appears showing for sale sign and text reads: The day you on are the market (FOR SALE) = no longer confidential.
Graphic appears showing the Cube, PMI’s R&D center in Neuchâtel, Switzerland,
Text reads: We can finally explain what we were doing!
Serge Maeder, voice over graphic:
And we can talk to anybody about what we do.
We can finally explain to our friends and family what the hell we were doing in this Cube.
Moira Gilchrist, speaking to camera:
And we made it… and we made it with three months to spare.
So, I'm pretty happy about that.
Video cuts to the Cube
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
It has been very difficult to find a name.
Jean-Claude Schneider, Global Head, New Business Opportunities, PMI, sitting in an open plan office, speaks to the camera:
What is a name, word that can be really international?
Urs Bringold, Vice President Content & Owned Media, PMI, speaks:
We had a name that was promising and interestingly it was not IQOS…
it was a couple, but it was IQO. Just completely made up names, right?
They don’t stand for anything, but you could associate something with it.
And then we started to add letters in front of it –
and at the end, so BIQO, IQOT, and we ended up with IQOS.
That was the birth of the name then that stayed till today.
Graphic shows first propositions of device names before IQOS.
Text reads: We started to add letters… IQOS… the birth of the name.
Video cuts to Mount Fuji and busy Japan
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
We actually launched commercially in Japan.
Why Japan?
For a very simple reason: Japan had a history of consumers accepting innovation.
Graphic shows Mount Fuji, Japan. Text reads: Japan had a history of consumers accepting innovation
Scott Coutts says:
Consumers demand innovation to be relevant.
So, they have this expectation of product innovation, creativity, bringing new things.
Shea Lih Goh, President, PMI Japan, speaks to camera:
There is a very strong culture of being very considerate to others.
These are the kind of the product benefits that really resonated with Japanese consumers.
Mimi Kurniawan, Chief Diversity Officer, PMI, speaks:
When people saw the product, people said, ‘This is truly the difference that drives us to achieve our bold vision.’
Graphic shows IQOS product.
Text reads: This is truly the difference that drives us to achieve our bold vision.
Shea Lih Goh speaks:
Plus, also, we had a favorable regulatory environment,
which allowed us to do a lot of communication and a lot of trials with the consumers at the start.
Karlygash Bismeldinova, AGC, Commercial Development Law, PMI, speaks to camera:
We didn’t know what would be the reaction.
Yes, of course we did studies.
We tried to test and see what consumers would think about it. But you never know.
You cannot be sure until you launch.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
We were sent photographs and videos of what was happening on the ground and,
oh my goodness, we were in tears to see consumers queuing round the block to get into the store and find out about this product.
And then we moved our focus and attention to Italy, which had been the second pilot launch market.
And it was an utterly different story.
Graphic shows the Colosseum in Italy and a scooter.
Text reads: It was an utterly different story. 2nd pilot launch market.
Video cuts to Milan Cathedral and busy streets.
Jacek Olczak, CEO of PMI, sitting in an office speaking to camera:
In the early days in Milan when we started, were, I mean,
from today’s perspective, they were pretty bumpy.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
It was really hard to make communications in Italy
because it’s not permissible due to the regulation.
Scott Coutts speaks:
It took time, it took patience to be able to bring new-to-world products to the market
and have adult consumers actually understand, ‘What's in it for me?’
‘How do I use the product?’
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
So, of course, there wasn’t the replication of what we had seen in Japan right on our doorstep in Italy.
So, we were like, ‘What is going on here? What’s wrong?’
André Calantzopoulos speaks:
What we had understood less is how in actual use by hundreds of thousands of people, what problems may occur.
Graphic appears showing the text: In the next episode.
Stefano Volpetti speaks:
We will go smoke-free and this is the direction, no way back.
Serge Maeder speaks:
It was a very, very bold move.
Shea Lih Goh speaks:
There were a lot of articles criticizing us.
Moira Gilchrist speaks:
The wait, I have to say, was excruciating.
Philip Morris International logo appears with text underneath reading:
Episode 4 coming soon!
We’re accelerating toward our smoke-free ambitions
* Smoke-free product net revenues as of Q3 2014.
** Smoke-free business net revenues as of Q3 2024.
