Philip Morris International shipped 1.4 per cent fewer Marlboros last year in part due to shifts by customers to the heat-not-burn version of PMI’s flagship brand, the company said.

Sales of the iQOS heat-not-burn device that uses Marlboro HeatStick cartridges reached 7.4 billion units compared with nearly 813 billion traditional cigarettes shipped, PMI said. PMI has said it is transitioning away from smokeable products to less risky alternatives like heat-not-burn.
Marlboro accounted for about 286 billion cigarettes of the 2016 total. Overall PMI shipment volume was down 4.1 per cent, led by a 7.6 per cent decline in Asia.
Full-year operating companies income (OCI) increased 1.6 per cent to USD 11.1 billion (EUR 10.3 billion), helped by a strong fourth-quarter performance. Sales in 2016 dipped 0.4 per cent to USD 26.7 billion. In the final business quarter, sales rose 9.1 per cent to nearly USD 7 billion, helped by stronger pricing. Fourth-quarter OCI jumped one third to USD 2.7 billion without costs incurred a year ago and stronger pricing, the company said.
“Our results last year underscore the strength of our existing business, driven by our world-class brand portfolio, the enormous promise of our reduced-risk products," said PMI Chief Executive André Calantzopoulos.