The brief history of L&M cigarettes

September 6, 2007

From the very beginning, L&M cigarettes have been the object for revolutionary innovations.

First, it was produced in USA in 1953 by Liggett Group Company and the smokers were surprised not only at the fact that cigarettes had filter. To tell the truth, cigarettes with filter have already existed by that time at the American tobacco market. But L&M could not be mixed up with any other brands, because its filter was not a side one, but white. At that time L&M was launched under the motto American cigarettes of the highest quality with the best filter! American rolling passed successfully and five years later Liggett Group took the decision to propose L&M to the whole world.

People from different continents began to smoke L&M cigarettes, Argentineans, Spaniards, Swiss, and Filipinos. Fifty years later in 1987 Philip Morris International began to sell L&M all over the world, expect Hong Kong. It was possible due to the international license to sell L&M brand which was gained by the company.

In 1993 L&M officially appeared in Russia as well. Here, the brand became popular at once. It is even considered that these cigarettes are preferred by most of smokers. Anyway, according to the data of independent agency of field investigation Business Analytics, at the second quarter of 2007, Philip Morris brands took first places in 25 Russian cities with market share 29,92%.

During the press conference it was reported that today L&M takes the third place in the world by sales volume and the second place by sales volume among other cigarette brands, produced by Philip Morris International .