Country Overview
Key Facts
Number of Employees: Approximately 350
Main Brands:
Marlboro, Chesterfield, L&M, Philip Morris, Next, Lark, Basic, Picadura, Interval, Chesterfield Roll Your Own
Welcome to Philip Morris Spain S.L. Our business was established in 1971 and today we employ around 350 dedicated and talented employees. Our business has been, and continues to be, very successful in Spain. As of June 2009, Marlboro, Chesterfield, and L&M are all in the top-ten brands in the country.
Most of the products we sell in Spain are manufactured in Philip Morris International's factories throughout Europe with the exception of the Canary Islands, where all products are produced locally by means of third party agreements.
From 1992, Philip Morris International (PMI) began to add locally-grown tobacco from Spain to some of its brands. In 2007, PMI signed agreements with the Ministry of Agriculture leading to the continual improvement of agricultural practices related to growing tobacco leaf in Spain. As a result of these efforts and agreements, PMI has increased its purchases of Spanish tobacco leaf by 15%.
PM Spain is active in the communities in which we operate, and we run a broad charitable contributions program. We have partnered with local organizations on a number of causes, including domestic violence prevention and other local community needs.
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 plain packaging, point of sale display bans, total bans on communications to adult consumers, and bans on the use of all ingredients in tobacco products.