PMI Study Puts Its EU Economic Contribution at 343 Billion Euros From 2021 to 2025

Philip Morris International has published a study on its economic footprint in the European Union, which puts the company's contribution to the EU economy between 2021 and 2025 at 343 billion euros, and the number is being used in a wider argument about how the trade in regulated alternatives is positioned within the EU's economy.

The study was commissioned by PMI and carried out by EY-Parthenon, and it reaches the figure by following the value the company's European supply chain supports, from the input side through to the jobs and revenue the business generates within the bloc. The report says that in 2025 alone, PMI's European value chain supported 164,000 jobs, and the five-year total of 343 billion euros is built up from the combined effect across the period.

The company has leaned on the study to make a point about where its own revenue is coming from, saying that a majority of its income is now from smoke-free products rather than from combustible cigarettes, and that the investment in heated tobacco and nicotine pouches is the engine behind the figure. The company has framed the number as evidence that its transition is being reflected in the EU economy, and not only in the company's own results.

The estimate is being circulated at a time when the EU's regulatory position on tobacco and nicotine products is under active review, and a figure of this size, published by the company itself, is a tool in the debate over how the next rules should be drawn up. The method of counting the contribution, and which parts of the value chain it includes, is where the number will most be tested.

For PMI, the study is a data point in a longer argument that its products, and the transition away from cigarettes, are embedded in the EU economy in a way that the next set of rules has to take into account. The size of the figure, and the jobs attached to it, are the parts the company will keep bringing forward.