Marlboro clove cigarette to debut in Indonesia

(AFP)
Published: 3 July 2007

JAKARTA - Indonesia’s HM Sampoerna, a 98-percent owned subsidiary of cigarette producer Philip Morris International, said Tuesday it will launch a clove-flavoured cigarette under its flagship Marlboro brand.

Pungent ‘kretek’ clove cigarettes are hugely popular in the world’s fourth most populous nation.

‘This is the first time HM Sampoerna has used the Marlboro brand to market its clove-flavoured cigarettes in the country,’ company director Angki Camaro told reporters.

He said the company will begin marketing the product on the main Indonesian island of Java and the resort island of Bali in the second half of this year, with sales to begin nationwide from next year.

Exports may begin in 2009, he added.

Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group, acquired the 98 percent share in HM Sampoerna in 2005.

Indonesia is one of the most profitable tobacco markets in the world.

More than 60 percent of Indonesian men smoke, while cigarette firms are stock market leaders. Some 57,000 deaths a year are blamed on tobacco.