“We expect ILUMA to drive continued strong IQOS user growth in 2024 and beyond.”

In context

“again reflects a broad step-up in nationwide store velocities and gradual distribution expansion as the category gains strong traction with adult nicotine users for its convenience and pleasurable experience. Now focusing on IQOS, starting with user growth. We estimate there were 28.6 million IQOS users as of December 31st, representing growth of 1.2 million users in the quarter and 3.7 million for the full year, a nice acceleration compared to 2022. This includes notable progress in Japan and Europe, in addition to a broad range of other geographies. ILUMA is now available in essentially all major markets outside Russia and Ukraine, with over 17 million estimated adult users as of December 31, 2023. This reflects the switching of existing IQOS users and the acquisition of adult smokers. We expect ILUMA to drive continued strong IQOS user growth in 2024 and beyond. Considering the seasonal fluctuations and volatility in quarterly user estimation, we plan to report this metric on a semi-annual basis going forward. With the addition of ZYN to our portfolio, and a smaller, but growing VEEV e-vapor business, we also intend to provide a more holistic view of our total smoke-free user base to investors. Moving now to IQOS in the Europe region, where smoke-free products made up more than 45% of Q4 net revenues. Our Q4 adjusted HTU share increased by plus 1.2 points to 9.6% of total cigarette and HTU industry volume. A key driver is the growing uptake of ILUMA, which is available to around 90% of IQOS users in the region after eight further launches during the quarter. In the EU, 11 markets making up nearly 30% of regional IQOS volumes adopted the delegated”