Higher Priced Cigarettes Mean Profit for Marlboro
The BBC reports today that Marlboro's owner, Altria Group, has seen an 18% jump in profits for the quarter ended due in no small part to higher cigarette prices. The company's US cigarette sales for the first quarter of 2005 were $43 Billion for a profit of $2.6 Billion. Billion! And for the rest of the world, sales were $201 Billion - that's for one cigarette company, for one quarter. According to the story, Altria sells half of all cigarettes purchased in the US. Do the math and that means that cigarette sales in the US alone are over $340 Billion per year. Altria, it should be known, also owns Kraft Foods.
Now, I used to be a smoker - for 10 years - and Marlboro was my brand of choice. I quit because I always said I never wanted to influence my children to smoke - or subject them to a smoker's house. So my wife and I quit well before we even conceived our first child. Cold turkey, too. But that's another story. I digress - with all the anti-smoking marketing going on, I have to wonder how much of an effect it's having other than making us feel better about ourselves for speaking out if the cigarette companies are still seeing enormous profits and revenue - seemingly in direct contrast to the anti-smoking trend.