Philip Morris USA cigarette shipping volume increased 1.2 per cent in the third quarter as an expanded Marlboro brand and the company’s discount segment gained market share, parent company Altria announced.

Brand building for Marlboro included expanding the market for the capsule-filter Marlboro NXT, Altria said. “PM USA’s market share rose 1.2 percentage points to 49.9 per cent in the three months ending 30 Sept. Over nine months the increase was 0.8 percentage points to 49.8 per cent. Both increases were led by gains of Marlboro and its discount L&M brand, Altria said.
Smokeable product revenues rose 3.2 per cent to USD 3.87 billion (EUR x.x billion) in part due to price increases. Those increases and cost management pushed adjusted operating companies income (OCI) up 4.3 per cent to USD 1.6 billion, Altria said. Adjusted OCI represented 42.4 per cent of revenue from smokeable products, a gain of 0.4 percentage points.
Marlboro shipment volume rose 1 per cent to 28.95 billion sticks while shipments of other premium brands fell 7.9 per cent to 2.18 billion units in the third quarter. Discount brand shipments gained 14.2 per cent to 2.57 billion units. Overall, PM USA shipped 33.7 billion cigarettes in the reporting period. (ci)