Philip Morris Opens Its First Cigarette Device Store in Africa in Johannesburg

The cigarette maker Philip Morris has opened a flagship store in Johannesburg, hoping to promote its heated tobacco product IQOS, according to the company.

The store for IQOS, which stands for I Quit Ordinary Smoking, is in Sandton.

South Africa, with an estimated 7 million smokers, is the only market in Africa where the company is selling IQOS. A pilot store opened in Cape Town in 2017 and operated for about a year, and according to reports, Philip Morris plans to reopen a permanent store.

IQOS devices are different from e-cigarettes, many of which vaporise a nicotine-filled liquid. IQOS devices electronically heat tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper just enough to generate an aerosol that contains nicotine.

One convert to IQOS, 33-year-old Evans Manyonga, said when he smoked normal cigarettes he was “coughing a lot” from them.

“(Now) I don’t smell of cigarettes. I don’t cough. It’s smoother and classier,” Manyonga, who has been smoking for 10 years, told Reuters at the store’s opening.

(Reporting by Ted Botha, SAPeople; Reporting by Nqobile Dludla and Editing by Bill Berkrot, Reuters)