PMI results highlights IQOS growth
July 28, 2020
IQOS sales grew five-fold in the past year according to brand owner Philip Morris’s latest quarterly results. The figure compares IQOS sales in the UK during the second quarter of 2020 with that of the same period in 2019 and suggests that the company’s significant investment in the brand has helped establish the reduced harm range as a core product in the UK.
The UK results are part of a positive for picture across Europe and, globally, IQOS HEETs (branded Marlboro in some markets) now sell at a rate that would put them as the third bestselling cigarette brand in the markets where IQOS is available, ahead of major brands such as Rothmans.
In the report the company stated: “In the EU Region, we added a record number of IQOS users in the second quarter to reach 4.3 million, an impressive performance given the context of the pandemic. This includes strong growth in Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany, and in historically slower markets such as the UK, where HTU [HEETs] volumes increased more than five-fold over the prior year quarter, and Spain. National offtake share surpassed 1% in both of these latter markets despite limited distribution.”
Despite lockdown, 2020 has been a significant year for IQOS with a menthol starter kit encouraging menthol cigarette smokers away from the combustible tobacco category and lowering the cost barrier for IQOS devices to as little as £39 (with £10 trials also available).
