Modern oral nicotine pouch Zyn had a 79.7% growth in shipment volume with 131.6 million cans versus first-quarter 2023, tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI) said in reporting its first-quarter earnings.
The cigarette maker said its share of the oral smoke-free category in the United States increased for the fourth consecutive quarter to more than 74%, up 1.3 percentage points sequentially. Net revenues increased by 11.4% on an organic basis mainly due to growth of Zyn nicotine pouches in the United States, PMI said.
"Strong smoke-free momentum continues with rapid underlying volume progression and accelerating organic net revenue and gross profit growth, fueled by the operating leverage of IQOS and the best-in-class economics of Zyn,” said PMI CEO Jacek Olczak.
The cigarette maker’s IQOS electronic cigarettes, which are expected to launch in the United States this year, also was a driving force for the company with unit growth of 20.9% to 33.1 billion in the first quarter.
The Stamford, Connecticut-based company said revenue for the quarter jumped by 9.7% to $8.79 billion.
Looking ahead, PMI raised its expectations for nicotine-pouch shipment volumes in the United States to about 560 million cans from the approximately 520 million cans it expected earlier.
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