Smokeless Tobacco Next for Marlboro Man

Source from:  thestar.com Aug 22, 2007 08/23/2007

Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA plans to start selling a Marlboro smokeless tobacco brand to grab customers of UST Inc.'s top-selling Skoal and Copenhagen. Philip Morris, the largest U.S. tobacco company, wants to blunt falling cigarette sales and capitalize on top-selling Marlboro's name recognition in the growing, $3.7 billion (U.S.) market. A test of Marlboro smokeless tobacco will start in Atlanta in October, spokesperson David Sylvia said yesterday. The company expects the product to sell for $3 a can. UST, based in Greenwich, Conn., controls 60 per cent of smokeless tobacco sales in the United States, where the market is expanding more than 6 per cent a year. United States cigarette consumption has been declining 1 per cent to 2 per cent annually, partly because of smoking bans in workplaces as well as restaurants and bars. Traditional smokeless tobacco such as the new Marlboro brand, as well as Skoal, Copenhagen and Grizzly, requires users to spit the juice that's created as they hold the finely ground tobacco between their lips and gums. Spitting tobacco is socially unacceptable in some settings, spurring UST, Philip Morris USA and Reynolds to test spitless products users can discard like chewing gum. Virginia-based Philip Morris started selling a spitless Marlboro product in Dallas this month. Last year, Philip Morris tested another spitless tobacco in Minneapolis. "It's a segment that's been growing," Sylvia said. Enditem