JAPAN
Japan Tobacco (JT) admitted in early August that it has lost ground to Philip Morris International (PMI) and British American Tobacco (BAT) in the heat-not-burn market. This became apparent after delays and supply bottlenecks with Ploom Tech, which led to a delayed entry into the potential US$10 billion domestic market for devices that heat and vaporize tobacco rather than burn it.
“It’s a pity we fell behind when Glo appeared,” said JT’s executive vice-president, Hideki Miyazaki. PMI is enjoying more than a year’s head-start in selling its IQOS nationwide. Since its launch, the company has sold at least three million IQOS units. Earlier this year PMI announced that IQOS had a ready taken a 12% share of Tokyo’s cigarette market.
BAT’s Glo device was launched in Sendai in December 2016 and in Tokyo in early July via 8,000 outlets around the city, and is expected to push into Osaka and Miyagi by the end of the year.
JT’s Ploom Tech was initially released only in Fukuoka and only appeared in Tokyo in June, yet still sales coverage is not expected to cover the whole metropolis until the end of this year. Other cities will not see Ploom Tech devices on sale until at least 2018.