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The “Heetwave Open” website is available to retailers registered with Philip Morris’ Digital Trade Engagement programme via uk.pmiopen.com and offers trade incentives for stockists and educational training tools to “improve knowledge of its expanding portfolio of smoke-free products”.
The site also provides retailers with the latest news and updates directly from Philip Morris and encourages more peer-to-peer advice sharing and an FAQs section.
Retailers can now access 24-hour delivery on all Philip Morris’ range of HEETS tobacco sticks, as well as IQOS devices, which “guarantees retailers receive their product within 48 hours”.
Kate O’Dowd, head of commercial planning at Philip Morris, said: “Increasingly, the heated tobacco category is taking market share away from traditional tobacco products, like cigarettes and roll-your-own.
“IQOS, PMI’s heated tobacco system, remains a category leader and the UK’s number one smoke-free product.”
She said the platform will increase retailers’ knowledge of the heated tobacco category and “the role it can play in helping smokers move away from cigarettes for good”.
The distribution plan focuses on 18 more cities and regions throughout the UK to “boost the support it gives to general trade retailers who stock IQOS and HEETS”, including doubling its field sales force to help retailers tap into the growing demand for heated tobacco products.
The UK is now one of the fastest growing markets for HEETS in Europe, said Christian Woolfenden, managing director at Philip Morris, with first-quarter share among total cigarettes and heated tobacco sticks reaching 2% in the UK.
In London, he said HEETS has surpassed a 5% share, which is more than double this time last year.
These initiatives form part of the company’s ambition to make the UK smoke-free by 2025, reducing the number of smokers to less than 5% of the population.
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