United States, Get Ready for IQOS!

Philip Morris CEO André Calantzopoulos talked about IQOS in US on CNBC on 30 July 2019. Below you may find the highlights covered by Calantzopoulos on CNBC's "Squawk Alley".

Philip Morris to Focus on Cigarette Alternatives

Philip Morris International, the company behind Marlboro, is to spend another $100m this year developing its alternative to traditional cigarettes as a global marketing drive intensifies to convert smokers to new products. Martin King, chief financial officer, said extra funds would be deployed to accelerate innovation of the company's IQOS product — a cigarette-like device that heats, rather than bums, tobacco. The plans, ahead of an imminent launch of IQOS in the US, are the latest sign of big tobacco ramping up investment to safeguard the industry's future. Rival manufacturers are fighting over a share of the market for alternatives as consumers reject traditional cigarettes at an accelerating rate. They include vaping company Juul, in which US tobacco group Altria took a 55 per cent stake last December for Sl3bn. 

Unsmoke as a Sunday Evening Activity

On 23 June 2019 Sunday, just after watching an animation movie with my son and wife, as a Sunday evening activity before sleep, my son asked for a special request: drawing

All he asked for was to draw something that each of us can work on different paper and share with each other when the whole drawing was finalized.

As a father who is not good at drawing figures, I came up with an idea: Unsmoke

How I Unsmoked My Best Friend

Today, it is not easy to find and trust a person that you can start a close friendship. I have just a few friends like this and I thank God for surrounding me with these trustworthy people.

One of those nice people is Mehmet. I met with Mehmet in 2007. We were both tax assistants in PwC. He was from Ankara and I was from Izmir. Due to the fact that the trainings were held in İstanbul, we shared the same room in the hotel. Since then, we became close friends and shared many things. Despite the distances we have, we always feel close to each other. Time passed by, we had things to laugh and things to cry, the one thing that doesn’t change was sharing the good and the bad experiences. Then first he got married and became a father, and later on I got married and became a father, too. In the holidays and vacations, we got together and enjoyed. The tune that our wives and sons caught was so fine and we became like a big family. People say that good things do not last long. He and his wife had made a decision, and this decision affected their life. One of the changes by Mehmet’s side after this decision was starting to smoke.

Unsmoke Hero: Volkan Yorulmaz

Unsmoke Hero: Volkan Yorulmaz

“I’ve got one son and he’s got one life." For Volkan Yorulmaz, the prospect of fatherhood prompted his decision to unsmoke his life and home.

The Turkish senior tax analyst is one of hundreds of PMI employees to share their stories in our #Unsmoke campaign, which aims to tap into global efforts to rid the world of smoke.