London — Trailing Philip Morris International in the contest to move smoking alternatives beyond e-cigarettes is just fine with British American Tobacco (BAT). According to Kingsley Wheaton, head of BAT’s next-generation products, longer-established electronic smokes hold more promise than the heat-not-burn technology pioneered by its main rival. The high acceptance of Philip Morris’s iQOS tobacco device in its debut market of Japan will not be easy to replicate elsewhere, he said in an interview on Thursday. "Are we behind Philip Morris on the tobacco-heating journey? The answer is yes," Wheaton said. "But we have a different take. Vapour is going to be a bigger category worldwide." More than 1-million smokers have switched to Philip Morris’s iQOS since it first went on sale in 2014. Demand has proven strongest so far in Japan, where Philip Morris has had a two-year headstart on BAT. While analysts at Exane BNP Paribas and Wells Fargo say the Marlboro maker has invented the most pr...
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