PMFTC elects new president

Cigarette manufacturer PMFTC Inc., the local affiliate of US-headquartered tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI), will have a new president beginning May 1, the LT Group Inc. (LTG) announced yesterday.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), LTG said PMFTC’s board of directors elected Gijs Lambert Johan de Best as its next president effective May 1 or “until he is duly qualified, whichever comes later.”

De Best will be succeeding Denis Gorkun who has been PMFTC’s president since September 2019.

Gorkun will be stepping down at the end of April, marking the conclusion of his five-year stint at PMFTC and a nearly 30-year career at PMI, according to a statement sent by PMFTC to The STAR.

De Best has been working with PMI for almost 20 years, starting as a financial analyst in August 2004 at PMI’s Netherlands office.

He rose from the ranks and held various managerial positions in Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and eventually becoming director of Business Development during his time in Hong Kong.

De Best is currently PMI’s vice president Strategy and Program Delivery for South and Southeast Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States and Middle East and Africa.

PMFTC said it was during Gorkun’s tenure when the smokefree products of PMFTC were commercialized in the country. PMFTC is a partnership between PMI and LTG’s Fortune Tobacco Corp. FTC owns 49.6 percent of PMFTC, according to LTG. It is the country’s leading tobacco manufacturer and distributor with a 55.2 percent market share in 2023.

The net income of LTG’s tobacco segment through PMFTC posted a 26-percent decline last year to P11.38 billion from P15.34 billion.

It accounted for 45 percent of LTG’s total earnings in 2023. LTG attributed the drop in its tobacco earnings to lower sales volume due to industry-wide price increase in the first quarter of last year.

Rising illicit cigarette trade incidence and trade inventory movements contributed to the lower income, LTG also said.