Philip Morris International inc. (PMI) has announced concrete steps to scale down operations in the Russian Federation and its intention to exit the market.

PMI today announces the concrete steps it has taken to suspend planned investments and scale down its manufacturing operations in Russia. PMI has:
• Discontinued a number of its cigarette products offered in the market and is reducing its manufacturing activities accordingly.
• Suspended marketing activities in the country.
• Canceled all product launches planned for 2022 in Russia, including the launch of its flagship heated tobacco product IQOS ILUMA, originally planned for March 2022.
• Canceled its plans to manufacture more than 20 billion TEREA sticks (for IQOS ILUMA) in Russia and the related ongoing investment of USD 150 million.
Further, PMI’s Board of Directors and senior executives are working on options to exit the Russian market in an orderly manner, in the context of an increasingly complex and rapidly changing regulatory and operating environment, PMI said in a Press release.
“Our focus and all our efforts over the last four weeks have been to ensure the safety and security of our Ukrainian colleagues. We stand in solidarity with the innocent men, women and children who are suffering,” said Jacek Olczak, Chief Executive Officer. “We employ more than 3,200 people in Russia. We continue to support them, including paying their salaries, and we will continue to fulfil our legal obligations. We will continue to make decisions with their safety and security as a priority.”
As previously communicated, Russia made up almost 10 per cent of total shipment volumes and around 6 per cent of PMI net revenues in 2021. PMI will provide an update to its 2022 financial outlook with its Q1 2022 earnings announcement on 21 April 2022.