Country Overview
Key Facts
Number of Employees: Approximately 140
Main Brands:
Marlboro, L&M, Petra, RGD
Welcome to Philip Morris Slovakia s.r.o. Philip Morris ČR was Philip Morris International’s (PMI) affiliate in the former Czechoslovakia. After Slovakia became an independent nation in 1993, Philip Morris Slovakia s.r.o was established to continue this business. By 1996, our company had become the market leader and we have maintained this position ever since.
Philip Morris Slovakia imports its products from PMI factories throughout the EU. Today we sell eight brand families, including Marlboro, L&M, and Petra.
We support a number of programs designed to prevent children from smoking. In 2010 alone, our employees trained retailers in more than 5,000 independent points of sale as part of a retail access prevention program designed to ensure that minors don’t have access to tobacco.
In addition to our youth smoking prevention efforts, we also have an active charitable contribution program that supports numerous social initiatives, including funding projects to help victims of domestic violence.
Smoking and Health
Tobacco products, including cigarettes, are dangerous and addictive. There is overwhelming medical and scientific evidence that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other serious diseases.
Addiction
All tobacco products are addictive. It can be very difficult to quit smoking, but this should not deter smokers who want to quit from trying to do so.
Secondhand Smoke
Public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke from cigarettes causes serious diseases in non-smokers, including lung cancer and heart disease. We believe the public health conclusions on secondhand smoke are sufficient to support smoking restrictions in public places.
Effective Regulation
Philip Morris International (PMI) supports comprehensive regulation of tobacco products based on the principle of harm reduction.
To be effective, tobacco regulatory policy must be evidence-based, apply to all tobacco products, and should take into account the views of all legitimate stakeholders including public health authorities, government finance authorities, tobacco manufacturers, and other members of the tobacco supply chain. Regulatory policy must consider the potential to trigger adverse consequences which undermine public health objectives, such as increasing the demand for illicit cigarettes.
While we support comprehensive, effective tobacco regulation, we do not support regulation that prevents adults from buying and using tobacco products or that imposes unnecessary impediments to the operation of the legitimate tobacco market. In that regard, we oppose measures such as generic packaging, point of sale display bans, total bans on communications to adult consumers, and bans on the use of all ingredients in tobacco products.