The CEO of Philip Morris International wants the massive tobacco company to stop selling cigarettes in the United Kingdom within the next 10 years.
Jacek Olczak, head of the company that sells over 130 brands, including well-known options such as Marlboro, Virginia Slims, and Parliament, told the Daily Mail on Sunday of his wish to “solve the problem of smoking.”
“I want to allow this company to leave smoking behind,” he said, “I think in the U.K., 10 years from now maximum, you can completely solve the problem of smoking.”
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Olczak added that a consumer’s best option would be to “quit” smoking, but that if they don’t, their “second best choice is to let them switch to the better alternatives,” and the Marlboro brand “will disappear.”
PMI has previously said it is committed to a “smoke-free future” and is working to shift from cigarette production to smokeless products, such as JUUL, which it owns a minority stake in.
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Martin King, the CEO for PMI America, told the Washington Examiner in a June 2020 interview that the company is working to transition consumers to a “heat-not-burn” device called IQOS.
“When we talk about a smoke-free future, our vision for the company is to be able to have all the smokers in the world eventually either stop smoking, which is the best choice, by the way. … But if people are going to continue smoking, which is most of them — let’s face reality — then the goal is to switch them over to a noncombustible, scientifically substantiated, ideally regulated product. … We believe these products are a much better choice for smokers,” he said.
