Big Tobacco sends out smoke signals
Competition among cigarette manufacturers in South Africa is set to heat up this year as Philip Morris International prepares to launch a new product to local smokers.
The plan is to bring the offer to market during the first half of this year, even as the government has affirmed its intentions to tighten anti-smoking regulation and frustrate access to consumers. Authorities worldwide are turning up the heat on tobacco and its harmful effects. And in the panic to maintain once bountiful profits, companies like Philip Morris (the producer of Marlboro cigarettes), British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International are shifting towards technology-based products as a new selling point. In South Africa e-cigarettes are readily available and tobacco producers are developing further products to address the increasingly stringent regulations that govern smoking worldwide. Philip Morris has developed a small range of products with its focus on iQOS, a tobacco-heating device that launched in Japan two years ago and has since been rolled out in Europe. The company believes the South African market is ready to receive the product. Philip Morris Internat...
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