Company to stub out UK cigarette sales

LONDON: Tobacco group Philip Morris International will stop selling Marlboro cigarettes in Britain within a decade, in line with the country’s ambition to stamp out smoking by 2030, its chief executive said.

Jacek Olczak said the Marlboro brand “will disappear” from British store shelves along with its other brands. Olczak has embarked on a more aggressive strategy to diversify the company away from cigarettes.

Philip Morris has launched a bid for British asthma drug-maker Vectura that would see it get more than 50% of its revenue from smokefree products and at least $1billion (R20.5bn) from products beyond nicotine by 2025.