Philip Morris Italy has chosen Taranto to launch a new project capable of creating jobs but also social value, given that it is the opening of the new Digital Information Service Center (DISC), an advanced assistance center aimed at Italian consumers of combustion-free products, costing a total investment of around 100 million euros. The DISC was presented on the occasion of the meeting "Integrated supply chains for the relaunch of the country", organized in collaboration with The European House - Ambrosetti in the Apulian city: as the name suggests, the center will be managed by a leading company in the field of digital consumer services and will employ up to 400 people when fully operational in 2021.
After an initial test phase carried out during the first wave of the health crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philip Morris DISC, which will be operational immediately, will represent the company's point of reference for all customer care activities for Italian consumers of the so-called products alternatives to tobacco, in particular those without combustion, including Iqos, Philip Morris's flagship product which is manufactured in Italy, in Emilia-Romagna, and which in our country has already been chosen by 1 million ex-smokers, who have thus abandoned traditional cigarettes. Digital in what sense? Because the center will be equipped, indeed is equipped, with the most advanced and innovative customer relationship management (CRM) systems, based on a complete digitization of processes and on the use of cloud technologies.
“Italy – he commented Marco Hannappel, President and CEO of Philip Morris Italy – was and is central to the global transformation process undertaken by Philip Morris International, in order to replace cigarettes with innovative products without combustion. After the construction of the first industrial plant in the world for these innovative products in Bologna, after the important multi-year agreements for the purchase of Italian tobacco and the sustainable development of the tobacco supply chain, we continue to invest for the full integration of our supply chain in Italy. A made in Italy supply chain that already today is made up of around 8.000 Italian companies supplying goods and services, 1.000 of which are active in the agricultural sector, with whom we work every day. The opening of the Philip Morris DISC in Taranto represents a further step forward in the transformation of our sector and confirms our commitment to supporting employment in our country”.
The opening of the DISC and the success of Iqos testify by now more and more the commitment of Philip Morris, a tobacco multinational, for a future without more smoke, in the sense in which we have understood it up to now, while safeguarding the production chain, the jobs and group growth. To replace cigarettes with products without combustion, since 2008, the company has invested more than $7 billion to develop, test and produce valid alternatives to cigarettes in two research centers in Singapore and Neuchâtel, where over 400 scientists work. Today these products are present in 61 markets and have already "conquered" 11,7 million people who have thus abandoned cigarettes (not a few, given that there are 40 million PM "customers" in the world) of which, as said, about 1 million in Italy alone. Italy is at the center of this crucial transition: overall, the Philip Morris business generates and maintains every year over 7.000 jobs in Italy, considering the direct, indirect and induced employment impact, as well as collaborating with over 20.000 people active in the agricultural and primary processing phases of tobacco.
Content written in collaboration with Philip Morris Italia
