Philip Morris International: Alternative Annual Report

Every year, one of the world’s best-known corporations provides its shareholders a glowing image of a company that is handsomely rewarding its shareholders by expanding into new markets, developing new products, and overcoming market and regulatory challenges.
The truth is that this corporation makes its billions of dollars in profits at the expense of people’s health and their lives. This report reveals the dark truth behind how Philip Morris International earns its profits.

Philip Morris International (PMI) is the world’s largest, deadliest and most profitable publicly traded transnational tobacco corporation. PMI currently operates in 180 countries and holds more than 27 percent of the international tobacco products market (excluding the People’s Republic of China and the United States). In 2010, PMI reported revenues (excluding taxes) of over US $27 billion and an operating income of US $11.2 billion. Another way to look at it: That’s $5,500 in profits for every person who has died so far this year from tobacco-related disease.

FINANCIAL LOWLIGHTS: THE PRICE PAID FOR PROFITS

PMI reported 11.6 percent growth in profits and an increase of 4.1 percent in its cigarette shipment volume in 2010. This increase in profits and volume contributes to:

One tobacco-related death every six seconds worldwide. That’s 5.4 million people every year.
Premature deaths. On average, smokers lose 15 years of life and up to half of all smokers will die of tobacco-related causes.
Higher healthcare costs and lost productivity. Tobacco causes a $500 billion global economic drain each year — nearly $74 for each person in the world.
For every dollar of PMI revenue, health care expenses and productivity loss cost the world economy $7.39.

To achieve these profits, PMI:

Spends nearly $5 on its so-called corporate social responsibility initiatives for every tobacco related death — a means of distracting attention from its core business of selling a harmful and deadly product.
Implements a range of tactics to undermine the success of public health policies that protect people from the harms of tobacco, including: