Cigarette manufacturer Godfrey Philips is looking at a greater share of the king size segment with the launch of Stellar Slims, India’s first slim cigarettes.

Ajit Suryanarayan, executive vice-president of the new product development centre at Godfrey Phillips, said that the company will introduce Stellar Slims in key markets where the king size segment is growing at over 15 per cent per year. “These will be about 40 in number all over the country,” he said, adding that Godfrey Philips is targeting sales of about 8 million sticks in the first year. With the addition of Stellar Slim Godfrey Philips would look at a 10 per cent market share in the king size segment which comprises 8 per cent of the entire tobacco market in India.
A new line of machinery had been installed to manufacture the product, developed after two years of market study and research and development with an investment of Rs 20 crore.(pi)