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We have the industry’s strongest and most diverse brand portfolio, led by Marlboro, the world’s number one selling brand, and L&M, the fourth most popular brand. This portfolio includes a variety of blends and styles across 150 distinct brands and more than 1,900 variants. In fact, seven of the top 15 brands in the world are ours.
Marlboro
Marlboro has been the world’s number one cigarette brand since 1972 and is one of the most powerful trademarks among all consumer products. In 2009, Marlboro’s volume outside the United States was 302.0 billion cigarettes. It is larger than its next three competitors combined, and its volume exceeds that of the top four global drive brands of British American Tobacco (BAT) and the four global focus brands of Japan Tobacco International (JTI).
In 2008, Philip Morris International (PMI) implemented a new brand architecture with three defined identities for Marlboro: Red, Gold, and Fresh. Marlboro Red continues to focus on its rich flavor, Marlboro Gold on exploring new dimensions in smoking, and Marlboro Fresh on refreshing taste sensations.
We continually innovate across the brand portfolio. Key recent initiatives include Marlboro Filter Plus (or Flavor Plus in some markets), Marlboro Intense (also known as Compact or Pocket Pack), and new directions in menthol such as Marlboro Crisp Mint and Marlboro Black Menthol.
L&M
L&M originated in the U.S. in 1953. It is now the fourth most popular cigarette brand worldwide, with a 2009 shipment volume of 90.8 billion units.
Other International Brands
Chesterfield, Philip Morris, Parliament, and Virginia Slims are some of our strongest international brands.
Chesterfield has grown to be PMI’s third largest brand.
The Philip Morris brand is our fifth largest, present in more than 40 markets.
Parliament is distributed in 50 markets worldwide. It is the fourteenth largest cigarette brand in the world and the sixth largest PMI brand. In 2009, Parliament’s volume was 37.4 billion units with a strong presence in Korea, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.
Virginia Slims is PMI’s premium stand-alone offer in the slims section.
Value Segment
The combined volume of three of our brands—Bond Street, Red & White, and Next—was 16.8 billion units in 2009, reinforcing our position in profitable low-price segments in Eastern Europe (Bond Street), Central Europe (Red & White), and worldwide (Next).
Local Brands
We own a number of important local brands, including Diana in Italy, A Mild in Indonesia, and Delicados in Mexico. We also make A Hijau and Dji Sam Soe in Indonesia, Optima and Apollo-Soyuz in Russia, Morven Gold in Pakistan, Boston in Colombia, Best and Classic in Serbia, f6 in Germany, Assos in Greece, and Petra in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to name a few.
The Top 25 Philip Morris International Brands
Marlboro, L&M, Chesterfield, Bond Street, Philip Morris, Parliament, A Mild, Lark, Morven Gold, Next, Dji Sam Soe, Diana, Optima, Sampoerna Hijau, Muratti, Virginia Slims, Merit, Red & White, Apollo-Soyuz, Delicados, Boston, Multifilter, Longbeach, SG, Peter Jackson
Other Tobacco Products
While PMI focuses primarily on cigarettes, our business development interests extend to other tobacco product (OTP) categories. We have successfully grown our OTP business and are complementing this with our recent acquisitions of the company Swedish Match in South Africa and the leading fine-cut brands Interval in France and Petterøes in Norway.