Cigarettes, according to the CEO of Philip Morris Italy our country will say goodbye in 10 years – Corriere.it

“My dream? May Italy become the first country in Europe without cigarettes within the next 10 years». Word of Marco Hannappel, president and CEO of Philip Morris Italy. It may seem a contradiction, but it is not: the tobacco multinational has in fact been trying for years to change its consumption, no more smoke but inhalation without combustion. A process that began in 2014 with the launch of Iqos, the device for heating tobacco which from December will land on the market with its sixth version, Iqos Iluma, completely innovative compared to the previous ones because the heating of the tobacco becomes induction, without the presence of foil in the device. A product innovation that in Italy has involved 600 million investments in a three-year plan that started in 2021 to integrate the machinery of the Bologna plant, the first in the world for the production of inhaled tobacco, inaugurated in 2016 with an investment of over one billion.

President, how important is Italy to Philip Morris?
«Italy is central to Philip Morris International’s vision of achieving a smoke-free future. And this is demonstrated above all by the investment in Bologna, the largest factory built in Italy in this century which alone exports a value close to 2 billion euros. Which means more than all the olive oil, all the aged cheeses and all the Italian mopeds, to give you an idea. And now Bologna is also central to the new product investment».

Why is the new product so important?
«The investment of a further 600 million euros in three years in Bologna, after the initial one of one billion, for new machinery and technologies, with a direct and indirect employment impact of about 8,000 jobs along the supply chain».

Iqos Iluma is just another step towards Philip Morris’s new goal: a smoke-free future, with inhalation devices replacing cigarettes. At what stage is this process?
«Worldwide there are currently 19.5 million smokers who have switched to Iqos, of which over 2.5 million in Italy. Philip Morris’s goal is that by 2025 at least 40 million smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke cigarettes choose to switch to products without combustion.

A doubling, therefore, worldwide, in 3 years. And in Italy?
«In Italy there are 2.5 million users of Iqos out of a total of over 12 million tobacco users, including smokers of old cigarettes. For Italy my personal wish is even more ambitious than the global one».

Meaning what?
«My dream is for Italy to become, within the next 10 years, the first country in Europe without cigarettes. In the world, Japan will get there first. But Italy, without prejudice to the current conditions also from a regulatory and fiscal point of view, or rather with a differentiation compared to traditional products, can become the first country in Europe without smokers”.

Provided that smokers who switch to inhalation devices definitively abandon cigarettes. How many succeed?
“About 70% give up cigarettes permanently. And of course we expect this percentage to grow over the years».

In recent days you announced a new investment in Campania, with the second Digital Information Service Center in Marcianise after the first in Taranto. What is it about?
«The Marcianise site will be operational by the first quarter of 2023 and will integrate the company’s customer care activities on the national territory: customers need to be followed up and also in this case we will have the support of a leading company in the services branch digital to the consumer. A new structure after the one in Taranto where we started with 165 places and reached 300 in two years. In Marcianise we are already starting from 200 and will soon reach 300. But that’s not all: at the same time we also announced an investment in Umbria, with 50 additional jobs, for a primary storage center for tobacco which from Bastia Umbra will be transferred to the factories in Philip Morris in Europe”.

With these new investments, how many employees are arriving in Italy?
«There are around 3,000 direct jobs, but with companies that work almost exclusively for Philip Morris, also thanks to the supply chain agreements with the Ministry of Agriculture and Coldiretti, there are over 38,000 employed for a contribution to the Italian economy of 8.8 billion a year equal to half a percentage point of GDP. This is why we are proud to continue investing in agriculture, industry and services in Italy, stimulating the development of an integrated Made in Italy supply chain».

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