Altria group, the owner of Philip Morris USA, is the leading tobacco company in the USA. According to the 2009 Annual Earnings Report, it was not the flagship cigarette brands, like legendary Marlboro, that maintained the company’s profits.

The smokeless tobacco brands helped to compensate the double-digit drops in cigarette sale volumes, so Altria is willing to develop the success of its moist tobacco items and boost profits, by adding new lines to its key smokeless brand Copenhagen

Impressed by the outstanding performance of Copenhagen wintergreen recently launched to the nationwide market, Altria has focused its efforts on creating new styles of this moist tobacco product and next week two novelties- Copenhagen Long Cut and Copenhagen Extra Long Cut will be launched nationwide.

For the tobacco giant the key strategy is to apply innovative technologies to update the traditional flavors of Copenhagen brand, which Altria received with the acquisition of UST Inc less than two years ago.

Brian Quigley, Copenhagen vice president of brand development said that they have been aware that Copenhagen is a landmark brand, which has a lot of potential to boost its presence in the smokeless tobacco market. Quigley admitted that the best way to increase the market share is to offer adult consumers the new flavors that are not presented in that category.

Altria communications manager Greg Mathe confirmed that two new products will offer a catching launch price available at last till May. Sellers will get identical product guarantees and commercial support they had when Copenhagen Wintergreen was launched.

Judging by the success of Copenhagen Wintergreen, the focus on extending the flavor lines works well for USST and Altria.

According to a survey among the managers of convenience store chains, a greater part of the surveyed said they consider Altria’s decision to focus on smokeless tobacco category a very wise strategy. Over 70 percent of the respondents responded positively on the question whether they think hat Copenhagen Wintergreen would be successful product in the smokeless category.

The industry experts are not sure whether US Smokeless could recover the volumes that have been lost due to the impressive growth by mainstream brands, and especially Grizzly, made by Reynolds American smokeless tobacco division Conwood. Grizzly holds the leadership position in that segment.

Though the tobacconist owns various marketing and promotional strategies for its cigarette and brands, Greg Mathe admitted their sales are forcing the retailers to expand their OTP programs, since such sets are very effective in accelerating the time of each transaction and helps to find the needed products much faster.

During the Consumer Analyst Group on New York meeting, Altria Chief Executive Officer Michael Szymanczyk considers that U.S. tobacco market is currently divided into four major segments – cigarettes and cigar smokers; consumers of traditional forms of smokeless tobacco; those who prefer snus; and those smokers who use both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in those places where cigarette smoking is banned.

By Steve Shepherd, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2010 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.