U.S. Cigarette Sales Rise 1% in ’96

U.S. retail cigarette sales rose 1% in 1996, helped by full-priced brands. Philip Morris Cos. led the pack, as its sales rose 5%, according to a PaineWebber Inc. report, while No. 2 cigarette maker RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. and No. 3 BAT Industries’ Brown & Williamson Co. unit showed respective sales declines of 3% and 4%. Sales of full-priced brands, such as Philip Morris’ Marlboro, RJR’s Camel and Loews Corp.’s Newport, helped boost cigarette sales, even as public health activists pushed for restrictions on tobacco sales and advertising. In 1981, Americans puffed on 640 billion cigarettes; by 1993, that number hit a low of 485 billion; and in 1996, it rose to 487 billion. About 1 out of 4 U.S. adults smoke--one of the lowest rates in the world.