INTERNATIONAL. Philip Morris International (PMI) is promising a highly innovative approach to its presence at the inaugural Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo, where it will focus on its successful reduced-risk products (RRPs).
PMI Duty Free Vice President Edvinas Katilius said: “We are delighted to partner with Moodie Davitt and their first-ever Virtual Travel Retail Expo. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for travel retail to embrace new digital formats as we adapt our business to the post COVID-19 world.”
PMI has enjoyed impressive success with its RRP portfolio in recent times, led by the best-selling IQOS. The company’s stated aim is that by 2025 at least 40 million of its cigarette smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke will have switched to smoke-free products, and that at least 30% of its total shipment volumes will come from smoke-free products.
PMI has invested over ten years and US$6 billion in the scientific research, development and commercialisation of its growing portfolio of advanced smoke-free products.
The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie welcomed PMI’s partnership, saying: “Any successful event of this nature needs industry leaders and innovators, and few sector players capture those qualities as well as PMI. Over the past two years, I have had the privilege of tracking the IQOS story in particular. In 2018 I visited the Cube, the company’s extraordinary research and development centre, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and was amazed by both the ambition and the science on display.
“Similarly, in October 2018, I was honoured to attend the launch of the ‘next generation’ IQOS products during a spectacular event at Tokyo’s renowned Happō-en. There I witnessed first-hand the impact of the heat-not-burn concept and device at a launch that was as classy as any I have attended in over three decades of covering this business – including numerous big beauty, fashion and retail introductions. I know that PMI is going to bring that same wow factor to the Virtual Travel Retail Expo, while also helping to point the way forward for our channel.”
Inaugural Virtual Travel Retail Expo gains rapid momentum
The Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo has attracted tremendous support from retailers, brands and airports with a string of further major announcements to be made in coming days. For exhibitors, the event features a range of Virtual Stands at different price levels, each offering a high-class digital experience, complimentary Expo Guide advertising, and unrivalled visibility to the global travel retail community.
Through the power of our own media and that of other Preferred Media Partners (who will be able to showcase their digital publications in the official Press Centre) and visiting KOLs, The Moodie Davitt Report will also ensure outstanding global exposure for all exhibitor partners.
