Country Overview
Key Facts
Number of Employees: More than 700
Main Brands:
Marlboro, L&M, Chesterfield, SG, Português, Águia, Virginia Slims and Ritz.
Welcome to Tabaqueira, Philip Morris International’s affiliate in Portugal. We are the largest tobacco company in Portugal and also one of the largest companies in the country.
Philip Morris International first established an affiliate in Portugal in the early 1980’s. Our business soon evolved into a joint venture with the then state-owned company Tabaqueira, which began license manufacturing of Marlboro. Our relationship with Tabaqueira continued to develop and in 1996, Philip Morris International was the lead company in a consortium that acquired Tabaqueira.
We are proud of our talented people and the leading portfolio of international and national brands that we produce and sell in Portugal. We manufacture and sell the world's most famous and successful cigarette brand, Marlboro, as well as the best-selling Portuguese cigarette brand SG.
Located in the Sintra Municipality, our factory is one of the largest Philip Morris International production facilities in the European Union. Our factory exports around 60% of its annual production to more than 35 countries.
Tabaqueira has an active contributions program, particularly in the community of Sintra, where our factory is located and most of our employees live. We support organizations that address key social problems, such as hunger, social exclusion and 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.