“We expect the initial phases of the initiative will deliver at least $600 million in cumulative cost savings over the next five years, which we plan to reinvest in our businesses in support of our vision and enterprise goals.”

In context

“ize and accelerate initiative designed to modernize the way we work and become a faster, more efficient organization. We believe that by doing so we will accelerate progress toward our vision. We plan to centralize work, streamline and standardize processes, further leverage artificial intelligence, intelligence and automation, and outsource certain transactional tasks. By optimizing processes and better using technology and external partners, we expect to free up significant employee time and financial resources. A key component of this initiative will be the establishment of an accelerated business solutions organization. This will be a centralized organization responsible for driving efficiency and process improvement across our companies in partnership with external service providers. We expect the initial phases of the initiative will deliver at least $600 million in cumulative cost savings over the next five years, which we plan to reinvest in our businesses in support of our vision and enterprise goals. We estimate total pretax charges for the initial phases of approximately $100 million to $125 million. Although we are still evaluating certain aspects of the initial phases of the initiative, we expect to record the majority of the cost as special items excluded from adjusted EPS by the end of the first half of 2025. With the initial cost being recorded beginning in the fourth quarter of 2024. By evolving our ways of working, implementing new technology and better leveraging external partners, we can drive further progress toward our vision and position ourselves for long-term sustainable growth in this dynamic environment. We continue to believe Altria is uniquely positioned to responsibly lead the transition of adult smokers to a smoke-free future. The tobacco harm reduction opportunit”