Wholesale Business Trends
Ohio Valley Wholesale Distributors Inc. are wholesale tobacco and
convenience store merchandise distributors doing business in West Virginia,
Ohio, and Kentucky.
Kentucky Retailers get ready for the new LIP
cigarettes
Beginning April 1, 2008 Kentucky retailers will be required to sell
only LIP (low ignition propensity) cigarettes. You will be able to sell
through your existing inventory of non-LIP cigarettes. For those of you that
are scanning, the change will require you to update your pack and carton upc
numbers as most of the new LIP product will have unique upc numbers different
than the existing non-LIP upc numbers.
Marlboro Moist Should Solidify PM USA’s Smokeless
Presence
Today, PM USA announced that it will
introduce a moist smokeless product by once again leveraging the Marlboro
brand name, which indicates the company’s confidence of the product’s
ultimate success. This entrance is not a surprise to us given the
attractive growth of the moist segment. PM USA will fully cement its
place in the smokeless segment with its Marlboro Moist and Marlboro Snuff
products.
Moist Smokeless Popularity Second Only To Cigarettes
Given the widespread introduction of
smoking bans, smokeless products have an added appeal to smokers when
they can not light up. By leveraging the Marlboro brand to enter the
moist and snuff categories, we anticipate that PM USA will be able to
attract the majority of smokers that will cross over into the smokeless
market, as well as attract existing moist users.
Marlboro Moist Available In Two Flavors; Rolled Out in
One Test Market
PM USA intends to introduce its new Marlboro moist
in October in one test market, Atlanta, GA., and will be available in
both long and fine cut blends, and wintergreen and original flavors.
Marlboro Moist will be priced at retail at roughly $3 per tin, which is
at premium levels, but below main competitors Skoal and Copenhagen,
therefore placing pressure on UST.
