This archive report was first published on 26 July 2019.
On Thursday, Philip Morris International opened its first flagship store in Johannesburg, marking a significant step in its efforts to grow demand in Africa for its alternative heated tobacco product IQOS.
The store, located in the affluent Sandton area, gives Philip Morris access to tourists and business people from Africa who frequently visit the region, allowing it to use its retail footprint as a springboard to expand in the rest of the continent.
"If you look at Sandton, it's the business hub of South Africa and Africa as well, so it's the one place where we need to start with our permanent flagship store," Philip Morris South Africa Managing Director Marcelo Nico told Reuters at the sidelines of the launch.
South Africa is the first and only market in Africa where Philip Morris sells IQOS, an acronym for "I quit ordinary smoking," which the company claims contains up to 95% fewer toxic compounds than regular cigarettes.
Philip Morris, maker of Marlboro cigarettes, launched a pilot store in Cape Town in late 2017, which operated for about a year, to test the market's appetite. Over time, it plans to return to Cape Town with a permanent store.
The firm began selling IQOS in 2017 in South Africa with the affordable 2.4 model and later launched the IQOS 3 and MULTI in November last year.
Unlike traditional smoked cigarettes, IQOS devices electronically heat tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper just enough to generate an aerosol that contains nicotine.
At the launch, an estimated 70% of South African adults who have switched to the product since the launch have converted fully to IQOS, the company said in 2018.
One such adult is 33-year-old Evans Manyonga, who started using IQOS two years ago because he was "coughing a lot" from cigarettes and has since converted two of his friends.
"I don't smell of cigarettes. I don't cough. It's smoother and classier," Manyonga, who has been smoking for 10 years, told Reuters at the store's opening.
