Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to all webcast attendees. Welcome to JT Group's Tobacco Investor Conference. I'm Jerome Jauffret, JT Group's Head of Investor Relations. Today's event will last approximately two hours, including Q&A. The presentations are available on jt.com, and a replay of the event will be posted on JT's Investor Relations website. Please note that all remarks today contain certain forward-looking statements and projections of future results. We'll review in detail the forward-looking statements in today's presentation for the various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our projections and forward-looking statements. Also, all product and product-related imagery in our material are exclusively to illustrate JT Group's strategy or performance to our investors. They are not to be used for any other purpose. Finally, all references to consumers in today's remarks refer to existing adult smokers or adult RP users.
Today, you will hear from several leaders in our tobacco business who will provide details on our tobacco strategy and our efforts to expand and produce Reduced-Risk Products. It is now my pleasure to introduce Eddy Pirard, President and Chief Executive Officer of JT International. Over to you, Eddy.
Thank you, Jerome, and welcome to all of you. Today, my colleagues and I will share details on the long-term strategic direction of JT's tobacco business, the profit growth engine of the group. We will speak to combustibles. However, considering our strong track record of performance in this category and your main area of interest, we will focus most of the event on RP and Ploom specifically. Our ambition is to share our confidence that we can replicate the same success in RP as in combustibles. But first, let me start with our guiding star, our new purpose: creating fulfilling moments, creating a better future. This is our new purpose, what drives every single one of us, our reason for being. The purpose is rooted in the JT Group's own purpose of fulfilling moments enriching life. Firstly, we're about creating fulfilling moments.
At the heart of our purpose is the high-quality and enjoyable experiences our consumers around the world get from or with our products. We know that what consumers want from us is constantly evolving, and we are confident that we can and will always find ways to deliver on these expectations. Secondly, we are committed to creating a better future, a better future for both consumers and for the wider society. We will continue to invest in and develop products with the potential to be less harmful, based on robust science, as well as looking for ways to make our products more sustainable. The word "creating" is an integral part of our purpose statement. It signals another important third dimension. We will accelerate innovation and diversification of our product portfolio.
We are committed to finding new ways to provide fulfilling moments for consumers and, in doing so, creating a better future for them and the societies in which we work. Our long-term tobacco strategy is guided by our purpose and our view of the industry, which I will cover over the next slides. We are confident that our new purpose is best fitted to drive JT's tobacco business. Over the last years, we developed an industry forecast model to better inform our strategy. Today, I would like to share with you some of the key takeaways. Our industry forecast covers both combustibles and RRP. Across both categories, we see meaningful growth opportunities. We forecast combustibles industry net revenues to increase by $17 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of approximately 1%. RP industry net revenues will increase by $48 billion by 2035, representing a growth rate of approximately 8%.
As a reminder, combustibles represent approximately 97% of our tobacco business core revenue by 2022. Therefore, the revenue growth opportunity for us is significant, both in combustibles, where we have a strong track record to continue to grow share, and in RP, where we have the opportunity to catch up, notably in HTS. While consumer demand for RP is increasing, according to our forecast, combustibles will remain and by far the largest category over the next decade. As a matter of fact, a significant number of smokers try and reject RP because products currently available are unable, for now, to replicate the taste and experience they get from combustible products. A first takeaway from our industry forecast is that the continued adoption of RP by consumers will slow industry decline rate.
Secondly, in 2035, we expect combustibles will still account for 74% of global industry volume versus 16% for HTS and 10% for other RPs. Importantly, while combustibles volume will continue to decline, such decline is expected to remain broadly in line with the historical trend of 2.5% per annum. We forecast HTS to be the biggest contributor to industry volume growth, followed by E-Vapor and Oral. Thirdly, we firmly believe that RP growth rates will ultimately depend on innovation, consumer acceptance, regulation, and taxation. In our model, we assume a growing adult consumer demand for all RP segments, coupled with the gradually increasing taxation. We also believe that HTS has proven in most markets to be the best product to convert smokers to RP. This is reflected in our forecast, as well as the fact that HTS is the RP segment that mostly cannibalizes combustibles.
We expect the E-Vapor growth rate to underperform HTS due to tightening regulation. For example, disposables are increasingly under scrutiny by regulators due to inappropriate marketing, non-tobacco flavor offering, and high nicotine concentration of certain products in the market. At the same time, the growing nicotine pouch segment will mainly source its volume from the existing consumer base in traditional Oral. Shifting from industry volume to industry net revenues forecast, we expect HTS to be the biggest contributor to growth, followed by combustibles. We forecast HTS and combustibles to generate in 2035 additional net revenue of $33 billion and $17 billion, respectively. HTS revenues will be driven by volume growth and pricing, while pricing will continue to more than offset combustibles volume decline. As a result, we forecast combustibles to account for 62% of global industry net revenues in 2035 versus 22% for HTS and 16% for other RPs.
The fact that combustible products are expected to still represent the majority of industry net revenues by 2035 is a testament to the resilience of this category and its pricing model. At the same time, the expected total HTS industry net revenues of $44 billion, fueled by the incremental $33 billion net revenues to be generated by 2035, represents a significant growth opportunity for the JT Group. Our industry views suggest that combustibles are expected to remain the largest category in terms of volume and net revenues in all our clusters, although magnitudes differ by geography. After Japan, we expect a number of markets in Western Europe to become the next HTS strongholds. However, in Asia and EMEA, the vast majority of industry net revenues will be still represented by combustible products in 2035.
All in all, our purpose and industry view translate into our strategy, which I will focus on next. In the combustibles category, we are and we will continue to outperform the industry. Our strategy in this category is to maximize top-line growth and return on investment. To do so, we will focus on sustaining share gains, capitalizing on pricing opportunities, and investing in a disciplined manner. Adult smokers value the fulfilling moments associated with combustible products, and as highlighted by our industry outlook, they will remain the largest cohort of nicotine users over the next decade. By constantly exceeding their expectations, we will fund a better future and facilitate this inevitable transition of our industry. Our strategy in the RP category is to prioritize investments behind HTS, mainly through the geographic expansion of Ploom X.
At the same time, we will enhance our capabilities and run exploratory initiatives in E-Vapor, Oral, and Infused to complement our focus on heated tobacco. Takehiko Tsutsui will provide more color in his presentation later on. While we have outperformed the combustible industry, we recognize that we are latecomers to the new world of RP. Following the initial success of Ploom X in Japan, we are now confident in our product portfolio and in our ability to compete in both categories. Our strategy is reflected in our product portfolio, which is mainly focused on combustibles and HTS, the two categories resonating the most with consumers currently and in our view in the foreseeable future. In combustibles, our Global Flagship Brands, Winston, Camel, LD, and Mevius, generated a volume of 360 billion units in 2022. In the declining category, GFBs have consistently been growing volume over the last years.
Natasa will share more on this in her presentation. In HTS, our focus on creating fulfilling moments resulted in the launch of Ploom X, the third generation of our heated tobacco stick proposition. In a growing segment, Ploom X has gradually gained share in Japan and continues to do so. Last but not least, in our efforts to be a truly consumer-centric company and to constantly learn from consumers, we also have an offering in E-Vapor with our Logic brand, in Oral with Nordic Spirit, as well as in Infused products. Depending on market specificities and opportunities, we leverage the different products available in our portfolio to accelerate our learnings. In the U.K. and Ireland, for example, in addition to our combustible products, we commercialize Ploom, our priority in RP, and run exploratory initiatives in E-Vapor and Oral with Logic and Nordic Spirit.
In Japan, we offer Infused products to consumers looking for an alternative to combustible and HTS with a more socially compatible proposition. Let me now cover our ambition in both combustibles and RP. In the last four years alone, we increased combustible share in our top 30 markets by more than 4 percentage points. Going forward, our ambition is to sustain share gains by consistently investing in the equity of our GFBs. Focusing on a few brands and best-in-class execution allows us to be more effective and to better capitalize on pricing opportunities when they arise. Over the same period, we grew AOP at constant currency by 10% per year on average, demonstrating our ability to maximize top line and bottom line. I would like to emphasize that the solid profit growth performance is driven by combustibles only, and we expect this to last.
Our ambition is to grow AOP in this category at a mid to high single-digit rate, focusing on improving return on investment to fund investment in RP. In this regard, our diverse geographic footprint and the specific role associated to each market will enable an emphasis on driving return on investment. We fully embrace the concept of Kaizen, or continuous improvement, across all our functions, including procurement, manufacturing, and route to market. Later today, Vassilis and Natasa will provide more details around our initiatives in combustibles. Let's now move to RP. In 2021, the JT Group launched its latest heated tobacco device, Ploom X, in Japan, followed by London in 2022, and more recently in Italy, Lithuania, and Portugal soon to come. Since launch, Ploom's share of HTS segment more than doubled in Japan, renewing and solidifying our confidence in our ability to offer superior quality products in this growing segment.
The group is planning to invest more than JPY 300 billion behind RP between 2023 and 2025, with a focus on driving additional consumer adoption in Japan and rolling out Ploom X in almost 30 markets by the end of 2024. Our ambition is to achieve a mid-teens share of HTS segment in key markets, including Japan and Italy, by 2028. It is important for us to build our RP volume in the coming years. With scale, we will add a new profit stream to our existing tobacco business. With our geographic expansion, we have the ambition to double our RP core revenue by 2025 and to reach break-even in RP by 2028 at Brand Contribution level. We are confident that there is room for the JT Group to reach mid-teens segment share in key markets and RP profitability by 2028.
With HTS weight of the total industry volume expected to double by 2028, we have the ambition to capture a disproportionate part of it, ultimately outperforming the HTS segment growth. Based on our 2028 share of segment ambition of mid-teens in key markets, JT's exposure to HTS will grow more than six times. Vassilis, Natasa, and Takehiko Tsutsui will add more color on the journey ahead in RP. I want to stress that the RP journey is a long one, one that will continue to evolve as technology improves, as regulation and taxation matures, and as consumers make increasingly informed choices about their nicotine consumption. So far, I've mentioned our organic efforts to build a stronger presence in RP, but we do not intend to rely solely on our internal capabilities. Let me touch briefly on other initiatives in the RP space that we are also pursuing.
In October last year, JT and Altria agreed to establish a joint venture to commercialize HTS in the United States, initially leveraging the Ploom brand for devices and the Marlboro brand for consumables. The U.S. joint venture is up and running and on track to submit a Pre-Market Tobacco Application for HTS products to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2025 and a Modified Risk Tobacco Product Application by the end of 2025. On approval, JT will supply HTS devices to the joint venture, while Altria will produce domestically the refills for HTS. As part of our memorandum of understanding, we are also exploring jointly a global long-term strategic partnership in RRP. Our development efforts in RP don't stop there. We also have established a vast number of partnerships and investments in this area.
These include minority investments, joint development and intellectual property sharing agreements, as well as cooperation with external ventures and incubators. We are excited about the opportunities ahead with Altria and our broader ecosystem of partners and investments. We will keep you, of course, updated on any material progress. Thank you for your attention. I will now hand over to Vassilis, who will explain how we are planning to fund our RP expansion.
Thank you, Eddy. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you all for joining our event. I'm Vassilis Vovos, Chief Financial Officer of Japan Tobacco International. Today, I will explain how we will be funding our RP expansion while maintaining the momentum of our combustible tobacco business. Let me start with a reminder of our growth track record. As Eddy highlighted, our tobacco business has a solid track record of profit delivery.
Over the past five years, it demonstrated its resilience overcoming multiple crises, including the COVID pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. We never stopped growing our business and consistently delivered strong performance. Since 2018, our volumes have outperformed a declining industry, increasing by an average of 1% annually, supported by acquisitions and continuous market share gains. It is worth to say that since 2018, we have grown our volume organically in over 60 of our markets. Our share of market gains reflect our constant investment in brand equity and our consumer focus. As a result, in 2022, we became the number two player across the 71 markets for which we are tracking market dynamics, and we increased the gap to number three again in the first quarter of 2023. Our positive volume trend was further enhanced by the growth of our heated tobacco stick sales in Japan.
This trend, combined with strong pricing, drove an average 6% annual increase of our core revenue at constant exchange rates. Our adjusted operating profit delivered a 10% average growth rate over the last five years, while we continuously enhanced our business fundamentals and our capabilities. Let's now look at the future. Following the resolution of the shortages of semiconductor supply, our three-year business plan, which covers the period 2023 to 2025, reflects significant heated tobacco sticks investment to support our ambitious geographic expansion and to accelerate our growth in Japan. We will fund our RP expansion while focusing on balancing our investment and our profit delivery. To achieve that, our efforts will evolve around four distinctive pillars. First, we will continue to grow our top line through stable volumes and sustainable pricing. Second, we will enhance return on investment by assigning specific market roles to all our geographic footprint.
Our third focus area is around efficiency initiatives while building our strategic capabilities. Finally, our fourth pillar consists of generating profit growth through our investment in RP expansion. As communicated during our full year 2022 disclosure in February, over the next three years, we expect mid-single-digit revenue growth and low-single-digit adjusted operating profit growth. This is slightly below our average growth algorithm. However, as RRP reaches scale, we will be benefiting from the category potential for incremental upsides. Within our business plan 2023, our volumes will be stable, fueled by continuous share gains across markets, while the industry is expected to decline by 2% on average. Heated tobacco sticks growth will further support our volume stabilization. Our Global Flagship Brands will remain the key contributor to our market share, building on strong equity and the success of our recent launches like Camel Craft or Mevius E-Series in Japan.
We have developed over the years a competitive, well-balanced portfolio across different price segments that allows us to effectively compete in the diverse markets in which we operate. Leveraging this strong equity, our brands' pricing power has proven to be solid and resilient. It has been a key driver of our revenue increase in the past, and it is expected to continue contributing to sustainable top line growth going forward. In 2023, we anticipate pricing to remain strong. As recently disclosed in our first quarter 2023, we delivered a strong price mix above 6%, and almost 80% of our planned pricing for the year has already been implemented or announced. Our business plan assumes continuous pricing potential, with the excise tax environment expected to remain broadly predictable and limited risk of significant tax disruptions.
This combination of stable volume and strong pricing, together with the twofold increase of our RP revenues, as highlighted by Eddy, will enable us to deliver top line growth over the next three years. Our second pillar of growth will come from our market archetypes. In the combustible business, we have assigned markets to one of three strategic roles to enhance focus and guide decision-making. Markets with an earnings and share focus represent approximately 90% of our total volume. They are expected to contribute sustainably to our revenue and earnings growth. Approximately 10% of our current volumes are in markets that have the mission to grow JTI consumer base. These markets have fundamentals that represent significant potential of future revenue and profit to our business.
To further improve our return on investment, we have decided to exit markets in which we did not identify a clear path to profitability, for example, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Laos, and Nicaragua. Another key pillar in the foundation towards future profit generation is our ongoing efforts to ensure our cost base remains efficient. Let me share a few examples. To strengthen our competitiveness, we are transforming the business and will deliver savings of over JPY 50 billion this year against the 2019 levels. These initiatives allow us to bring business solutions faster and more effectively, notably through agile ways of working and the implementation of reduced layers and spans of control. Supply chain efficiencies are expected to deliver an additional JPY 20 billion by next year, reflecting initiatives such as product simplification, integrated end-to-end supply, and operational excellence.
In our recently expanded global business service centers, we are focusing on standardization and simplification to ensure enhanced productivity and scalability. As part of the tobacco business integration, we have embarked on a One ERP journey which aims to integrate our Japan operations into our single global ERP instance, leading to increased automation while further enhancing our commercial capabilities. We will pursue the delivery of efficiencies on an ongoing basis, fully leveraging our Kaizen mindset. Let me now highlight some of the capabilities we have been developing in JTI. In line with our purpose of creating fulfilling moments, creating a better future, we are strengthening our expertise spread across multiple areas of the business.
For instance, in terms of product innovation, we focus our R&D investments towards reduced risk products, aiming to create value for consumers through innovative product development, scientific research, and exploration of novel technologies for heated tobacco and other products. This resulted in the continuous build-up of the number of intellectual property patents that we have filed with the European Patent Office in recent years. You will hear more about this later from Tsutsui-san. We are also developing our science capabilities in the pursuit of regulator-endorsed reduced risk claims, as Tsutsui-san will explain. We have reinforced our commercial capabilities to further enhance consumer acquisition and retention, both in the digital and the physical retail space. Natasa will share some of our initiatives in this area later. Finally, with the One Tobacco Integration, we consolidated our strength globally and established greater collaboration and fastest decision-making.
For example, we now operate with One Global R&D and One Global Quality Assurance functions by consolidating respective teams from the previous international and Japanese tobacco businesses. We are confident that this integration will boost our consumer-centric capabilities in line with our new purpose. Turning more specifically to our RP investments. As you heard earlier, in the next three years, we will be investing over JPY 300 billion in RP. These investments are focused towards the heated tobacco stick segments, which we view as the main driver of future volume and profit growth in RP. Simultaneously, we will keep investing in the exploration of Infused Tobacco, E-Vapor, and nicotine pouch segments to generate further consumer insights and assess scale-up opportunities. Additionally, we continue to fund innovation outside of these segments towards the development of new generation propositions.
During business plan 2023, the bulk of our investment is dedicated to market commercialization to support the Ploom geo-expansion. The remaining investment will be directed towards manufacturing and R&D capabilities. We will capitalize on our established commercial strengths in the markets where we launch heated tobacco sticks, including our strong trade relationships and marketing and sales expertise to enable the fast pace of Ploom deployment. Regarding heated tobacco sticks manufacturing, we currently have two manufacturing sites, one in Asia and one in Europe, enabling us to best serve the current and future Ploom markets. As we expand our share in heated tobacco stick, we will revisit the footprint in an agile manner. Looking at our projections with regards to our RP performance targets, our international expansion of Ploom will triple our heated tobacco sticks volumes by 2025, and we expect to double those volumes again by 2028.
As the category has a revenue and gross margin mix which is more than 50% higher than cigarettes, this will enhance our revenue growth algorithm and positively impact our profit generation. Combined with the selective investment approach in other RP segments, we are confident in our ability to reach break-even across the whole RP category by 2028. So let me finish by saying that in summary, the tobacco business has a solid track record of earnings growth, and we are setting the foundation for sustained future profit generation. Our growth algorithm will continue to be fueled by top line development driven by resilient pricing in combustibles and the increasing contribution from RP. This revenue increase, combined with the focus on return on investment in our combustible business and an optimized cost base, will further enhance our profitability.
This will allow us to continue building our strategic capabilities, to fund our accelerated investments into RP, and to deliver mid to high single-digit adjusted operating profit growth at cost and currency on the mid to long term. This concludes my presentation, and I will now hand over to Natasa, who will take us through our consumer-centric approach.
Thank you, Vassilis, and welcome to all of you. I am Natasa Milosevic, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales of JT International. Today, I will share how we are delivering on our new purpose in marketing and sales, with a special focus on consumer-centricity and the RP brand and commercial efforts to drive JTI's business. Let me start with how consumer-centricity powers our strategy. To be successful in the evolving nicotine landscape, we have adopted a future-forward and strategic consumer insights approach, connecting global trends and segmentation with consumer dynamics and behaviors.
Navigating the global consumer trends is essential. These sociodemographic shifts impact consumer behavior, with implications for the brands and experiences we create. For example, the In-Control trend reflects how consumers demand products that they want in the way that they want them, resulting in customized solutions and rewarding personalized relationships. We've also developed a sophisticated global consumer segmentation to map different consumer profiles, leveraging demographics, usage drivers, pain points, and purchase behaviors that offer precise targeting and positioning of our brands for relevant adult consumer segments and addressing different usage moments. For instance, the segment called the Explorers are proud adopters of the latest trends and technologies, and they choose brands that make a statement about their personality. As a result, they're part of our core adult target audience for RP products. That's our starting point, allowing for consumer and data-driven decision-making.
Now, I want to demonstrate how consumer-centricity supports our strategic approach. Our new marketing and sales strategic framework supports the new company purpose, and as you would expect, starts with the consumer. For us, it is crucial to anticipate how consumers define fulfilling moments and a better future in order to deliver our new mission: creating, leading power brands and experiences for the modern world. Our marketing and sales strategy is built on key pillars. In combustibles, our aim is to maximize growth through our Global Flagship Brands and further improve return on investment to fuel our reduced risk product expansion, as shared by Eddy and Vassilis. In reduced risk products, our focus is on establishing Ploom as a global power brand to become a serious challenger in the HTS segment. This will, in turn, drive sustainable long-term growth and profitability for JTI.
Additionally, we're exploring the development of other innovative nicotine propositions in RP, with the mission of exploring today to win tomorrow. All of this is underpinned by delivering superior consumer experiences and services through a seamless route to consumer, best-in-class digital solutions, and an excellent global consumer care platform, and while always keeping an eye on the future. Let's now review in more detail our combustibles strategy. Our total combustibles performance continues delivering robust market share gains across markets. As Eddy mentioned, since our last investor conference in 2018, our total combustibles share increased by 4.2 percentage points, reaching 35.6% share in our top 30 markets. The Global Flagship Brands are at the center of our success in combustibles. These leading brands already account for 69% of the total combustibles volume for JTI, an increase of 7 percentage points versus 2018.
In 2022, our GFBs grew share in 24 of our top 30 markets, led by Winston and Camel, two brands we are proud to see in the top three cigarette brands in the world. We are committed to continue supporting our Global Flagship Brands by delivering exceptional consumer experiences, investing in brand rejuvenations and relevant product upgrades, while creating immersive activation initiatives. By doing so, we aim to maintain and enhance the strength and equity of our brands and continue addressing the evolving needs of our consumers. Let me share some of the remarkable achievements of our brands, starting with Winston. Winston continues strengthening its position as the number two brand globally, consistently narrowing the gap versus the number one. In 2022, Winston reached its highest-ever market share in more than 44 markets. It also maintained the number one position in the Smooth segment, compacts, and fine-cut tobacco.
Camel enjoys a fantastic momentum as we unleash the Camel iconic power beyond its historical strongholds. We're adapting the brand to meet new consumer preferences and deliver exponential growth. Mevius stabilized its combustibles share and leadership in Japan as we expand its unique premium experience in the Asia-Pacific region. And LD continuously delivers great quality at the best possible price. In 2022, it achieved its highest share in key markets beyond Eastern Europe, like Canada, Jordan, Malaysia, and the U.S. All in all, this continued success in combustibles is the result of a long-term and focused strategy driven by robust brand frameworks. Our portfolio drives business growth by meeting the evolving demands of adult consumers. We leverage our previously shown global consumer segmentation to translate consumer insights into a comprehensive portfolio map that helps support the growth of our brands across markets.
Additionally, the deep consumer understanding informs our four key innovation territories in combustibles: taste and flavor, economizing, considerate smoking, and sustainability. The portfolio strategy framework helps us drive revenue growth through sustained share gains while leveraging on the complementary brand positioning in terms of pricing and image territories they occupy, as well as the multilevel price propositions across brands that support competitiveness. Last but not least, our global portfolio simplification framework aims to drive further efficiencies across the combustibles portfolio, centered on three key principles: focus on our Global Flagship Brands, rationalize tail brands and SKUs, and capitalize on local needs. So, as you can see, we deliver remarkable performance in combustibles, and we will continue to maximize their potential to fund our RP efforts as we invest in the future. Let's now take a closer look at our RP priority, specifically Ploom.
To succeed in RP and build a sustainable business for the future, we need a strong brand. Therefore, our overarching ambition is to build Ploom into a global power brand. Let me guide you through our progress thus far and the strategies we've employed to achieve our goals. I want to start by sharing some key highlights of our encouraging progress in Japan, which Tsutsui-san will detail later. First and foremost, we are rapidly growing our consumer base, which has quickly surpassed 1 million users, increasing by 45% year on year. We observe robust adoption despite the highly competitive market environment, with high regular and exclusive usage, which resulted in us doubling the share of segment in two years. We are growing consumer awareness around our latest device, Ploom X. Our ultimate ambition is to become a top-of-mind brand in HTS.
This positive momentum is the result of key strategies implemented in the market. Let's take a closer look at them. Everything we do starts with the consumer. Our approach is data-driven, and we maintain a holistic view of consumers, irrespective of their nicotine product preferences. With this in mind, we've identified a core adult audience for Ploom, which targets innovators and early adopters. Naturally, these consumers are more open to RRP products and actively embrace new trends, brands, and technologies. This progressive audience holds paramount importance to us as they are instrumental in building an aspirational brand equity. Furthermore, this audience generates a spillover effect on other audiences through word of mouth and positive image perception, enabling us to scale over time. We've built the Ploom brand around our core adult target audience, reflecting their core values, beliefs, and needs.
Ploom is here to shape the future of mindful pleasure for the modern consumer. Ploom is an aspirational brand and accepts no compromise on design, providing the ultimate style. Ploom is all about pleasure. We're here to indulge consumers with satisfying sensations, beautiful aesthetics, and a seamless consumer experience. Ploom was built with the cutting-edge technologies and is committed to constant innovation. Recent research has shown that we're delivering on this, as consumers rate stylish, credible, and advanced as the top image attributes associated with the Ploom brand. Now, how do we bring Ploom to life? Our robust strategy is articulated around three pillars: the power brand and its ecosystem, the connected consumer journey, and the omnichannel activation. Ploom brand is at the core, connecting all parts of the ecosystem. The device serves as an entry point to the world of Ploom and provides advanced heated tobacco technology.
The heated tobacco sticks are real tobacco taste providers with sensorial and satisfying flavors, and accessories offer customization, making the overall experience more personalized while proven to increase retention. The consumer journey in this segment is complex, with multiple online and offline touchpoints. I will share more details on this on the next slide. Therefore, it's important to build connected paths from discovery to advocacy with superior omnichannel activation that ensures a consistent 360-degree experience across all touchpoints. We know that switching to RRP can be complex, even challenging for some. To address this, we are committed to handholding consumers as they explore, try, buy, and ultimately become advocates of Ploom. To achieve this, we've created a seamless consumer journey.
Whether our consumers see us at retail, find us online, or get a personal session with an ambassador or a referral from a friend, we deliver a quality experience every time. We focus on three key stages along the consumer journey: awareness, quality consumer acquisition, and retention. We've also identified key touchpoints that provide superior experience for each stage of the consumer journey and route all secondary channels towards them. These are Ploom stores, Ploom websites, the Ploom Club loyalty program, and Ploom Consumer Care. And of course, we're leveraging our strong position in retail and strong relationships with our trade partners to bring Ploom to where consumers are present every day. Retail is more than just sales. It's about an immersive experience that conveys what the Ploom brand stands for and what we can offer.
We view retail as a pyramid that begins with exclusive flagship stores and extends all the way down to mass retail, with each level providing a specific experience and with a different commercial purpose. Our flagship and brand store formats provide the ultimate brand experience for new and existing consumers, ranging from guided trials to exclusive Ploom Club member-only events. Pop-ups are a tactical format that allow Ploom to efficiently reach new consumers at different locations, from shopping centers to music festivals, thus bringing Ploom to consumers at consumer-relevant locations. Finally, Ploom Shops elevate conventional retail experience by providing a wider assortment of Ploom products to consumers and increasing visibility of the Ploom brand. The feedback from consumers on Ploom brand-owned retail experience and service levels is incredibly positive. In parallel to the retail experience, digital and data play central roles in our modern brand-building approach.
The digital opportunities are endless, from reaching more consumers and offering tailored communications to delivering convenience through e-commerce and managing loyalty programs. Therefore, one of our core strategies is to connect the offline world to the online world with the Ploom website at the core. We're also excited about the potential of data using artificial intelligence to deliver a whole new level of consumer experience. Specialized learning algorithms enable us to segment users on the micro level and make our communication truly personalized. Now let's zoom in on Ploom Club, one of our key tools for retention and loyalty building, as well as lead generation. The entire club experience has been designed to be frictionless and offers a multilevel and engaging reward system that gratifies users for every activity, thus fostering long-term loyalty.
I specifically want to highlight our member-get-member mechanics that rewards our existing and new Ploom users while at the same time being one of the most efficient consumer acquisition tools for the business. Our community is growing fast with an impressive one out of every three Ploom users joining the club. Last but not least, I want to emphasize the importance of our consumer care service, which supports consumers throughout their entire journey with Ploom. We've developed a centralized digital platform and global approach to offer best-in-class consumer care to Ploom users worldwide in all local languages. Ploom offers consumers multiple communication channels. Our consumer care agents undergo extensive training programs to ensure they have a deep brand and product knowledge, enabling them to resolve most requests during the first contact. Consumer care is critical to handhold consumers as they experience HTS and RP overall.
This is why we have set some very high standards and ambitions, like, for instance, aiming for a 24/7 availability wherever possible. In closing, I would like to leave you with some key takeaways. We're building Ploom as a power brand. We've established necessary capabilities across the organization, created a connected consumer journey and omnichannel experience that resulted in rapid growth of Ploom consumer base. As we're rolling out Ploom X to new markets, we will ensure powerful launches that deliver superior consumer experiences, focusing on retention, leveraging our learnings from existing markets. Additionally, we're committed to constant product innovation with new devices, sticks, accessories, and special editions. Before passing the word over to Tsutsui-san, I want to give you a taste of the Ploom experience with a short video. Thank you for your attention.
The future is already happening. We are ready more than ever to seize it.
Our purpose: creating fulfilling moments, creating a better future. Introducing Ploom, the power brand designing the future of pleasure for the modern world through innovation and design. Ploom is the aspirational brand for the progressive adult user, with a premium product range, a connected and seamless consumer journey, and superior omnichannel 360-degree experience delivered through a first-in-class global digital ecosystem. Rewarding Ploom Club, immersive experience in brand stores, best-in-class consumer care with a continuously growing community of loyal consumers. Leveraging our key learnings from Japan, Italy, and the U.K., we are ready to unleash Ploom as a true global power brand.
Thank you, Natasa. My name is Takehiko Tsutsui, and I head up the Reduced-Risk Products business at JT International. I hope that the video you just have seen helps you to better understand the strength of Ploom X.
The presentation that I am sharing with you today seeks to add some building blocks to what has been presented by my colleagues to emphasize our strong confidence in Ploom X and our ability to continue to grow fast in this RP category. I will go through our key developments and performance indicators, followed by our plans and strategies for the near-term future. Ploom X brings significant improvements compared to the previous generation. In doing so, we have been able to reflect all learnings and consumer feedback that we received. Let me expand on some of the key differences between Ploom X and Ploom S devices. First, we have enhanced the sensory delivery by using a unique technology that delivers an authentic and rich tobacco taste with a constant intensity throughout the session.
To achieve this, we've upgraded the heating engine, fine-tuned the heating profile, shortened the heat-up time, and extended the session length. Secondly, we've also made Ploom X devices smaller, slicker, and easier to use, and thirdly, we've designed our product so it can be personalized with an interchangeable front panel, enabling consumers to choose from a wide array of colors and patterns to make their Ploom X truly unique. Additionally, there's now a broad range of elegant accessories to increase the standout further. As Natasa explained, we were now building a dedicated ecosystem for Ploom, which encompasses the device, accessory, and tobacco sticks. Alongside the Ploom X device launch, we have also upgraded the portfolio of tobacco sticks. We have introduced new blends to enhance tobacco flavor and aroma in a slightly longer stick. These improvements have led to an enhanced product experience and greater consumer satisfaction.
I'd like to share some key consumer metrics and their evolution to demonstrate the added benefits provided by Ploom X to our consumers. Among the different consumer indicators that we track, I will focus on three: consumer satisfaction score, or CSAT, retention rate, and Net Promoter Score, or NPS. The chart shows the result of the most recent surveys in Japan. CSAT is a percentage of consumers who say they are very satisfied with their experience with Ploom X. This metric is fundamental to understand if we are meeting their expectations. The retention rate represents the percentage of consumers who keep using the device long after the initial purchase. This indicates the size of our loyal franchise and highlights the potential of proposition longer term. Net Promoter Score comes from asking consumers how likely they are to recommend Ploom X to others.
Strong peer-to-peer advocacy is critical on our journey to build the Ploom as the true global power brand. As you can see from the charts, we are seeing meaningful improvements with Ploom X as compared to the previous generation product. These improved consumer indicators are an excellent achievement that has translated into a better commercial performance. I'm pleased to report that since the launch of Ploom X in Japan, our share in HTS segment has constantly been increasing, reaching 9.3% in the first quarter of this year on a shipment basis, as mentioned in Eddy's slide. Ploom segment share has demonstrated a CAGR of 64% over the past two years compared to 14% for the overall HTS market. This has made us the fastest-growing player in Japan's HTS segment.
This achievement was not only possible because of improved product offerings, but also thanks to the set of effective consumer-centric initiatives, as explained by Natasa. Let me also share a few highlights of the most recent initiative we have in Japan, the relaunch of Mevius renewal range. These are entirely new tobacco sticks under Mevius brand. We have further upgraded the blends to improve tobacco flavor and aroma intensity and vapor volume for better consumer satisfaction. Additionally, we've positioned the range to a more affordable price point to further encourage consumer trial, acquisition, and retention. Simultaneously, we have launched a limited blue-color version device and a collection of blue accessories to celebrate the launch.
Strong performance to date and a rich pipeline of new product initiatives, which I will explain later, make us confident in our ability to deliver on our ambition to reach mid-teen HTS segment share by 2028 in RP markets. We have learned a lot on the journey so far and are much better equipped to compete and win going forward. Leveraging Japan's performance, we are confidently moving on to the global geo-expansion phase for Ploom X with a sufficient supply of devices. Last year, despite planning to do so, we could not implement a large-scale geo-expansion due to the semiconductor shortage. However, this year, we are back on track in terms of supply, meaning we are now able to accelerate the expansion of our geographical footprint with the right level of investment as presented by Vassilis.
With every new market entry, we are deploying a strategy to launch Ploom X in selected cities first. We then use certain KPIs to evaluate the performance and consequently decide expansion to other cities and ultimately nationwide. This strategy enables us to pace the growth of our global footprint more effectively and efficiently, coupled with a sound deployment of company resources. To date, Ploom X is already present in four markets: Japan, U.K., Italy, Lithuania, and in less than two weeks, we will launch Ploom X in Portugal. In selecting the markets for new launches, our expansion strategy considers several factors. Among these, we look at two main aspects. The first, HTS segment market share and its profit pool potential, and the second, the impact of HTS segment on our combustible business when it reaches a certain size.
Although target markets and schedules are reviewed regularly, we expect to launch Ploom X in 10 more markets still this year, so more than one market every month. But we are not stopping there. In 2024, we are planning 14 additional markets. By the end of 2024, we expect to be present in 28 markets and with more planned for 2025. As a result, we will have covered nearly 60% of the global total HTS markets in volume by the end of this year and just shy of 80% by the end of 2024. Since we launched Ploom X in the U.K., we have received positive consumer feedback, mainly regarding the amount of the vapor, heating speed, and unlimited number of puffs per stick. Although it's in the early stage of segment share development, we do recognize a solid start.
Ploom X is now available in over 60% of the key accounts in London, and the sales volume of both devices and tobacco sticks is on track. This launch represents a meaningful step on our quest for global HTS presence. Taking advantage of what we have learned during the launch in Japan and in the U.K., the recent launches in Italy and Lithuania have been carefully prepared and are going well. Before moving our efforts into the other RRP segments, let me reinforce once again the progress we have made in the HTS segment. On the slide, you can see the architecture of a generational evolution of our HTS products from the beginning of our journey. We have launched our first HTS device back in 2019 in Japan. Already in the following year, we introduced the second-generation product, Ploom S 2.0 in Japan and Ploom S in other markets.
Just a year later, in 2021, we have successfully launched Ploom X, our first global proposition. With every new generation launch and with every new market entry, we relentlessly accumulate consumer feedback and learnings that are fundamental to improve our offering from one generation to the next. Of course, learning continues with Ploom X, and we are already well into the development of our fourth-generation device and tobacco sticks to be introduced in the future. Turning to our efforts in the other reduced-risk product segments, Infused Tobacco, nicotine pouches, and E-Vapor are referred to as other segments, as Eddy mentioned earlier, and we have set a clear strategic direction and a disciplined investment posture for each. Along with a distinct learning agenda set per segment, we are going to test new products in all of them this year in selected markets.
Firstly, in Infused Tobacco, we are going to launch a successor generation for Ploom Tech Plus within the third quarter of this year in Japan. Based on its performance assessment, we will explore the opportunity for geo-expansion outside of Japan. Moving to the nicotine pouch segment, where our brand, Nordic Spirit, is currently present in three markets: the U.K., Ireland, and Switzerland. This month, we are launching Nordic Spirit as a test in the Philippines, which will be our first launch outside of Europe. Additionally, we are planning our launch of our new formula in the U.K. this year, which can deliver a flavor and a nicotine faster than the current pouches.
Lastly, in the E-Vapor segment, although we are very much aware of the rapid growth of disposable E-Vapor products, we are currently not deploying any resources to compete with a similar product offering, as this new segment is facing many challenges. Instead, later this quarter, we are going to launch our improved pod system in the U.K. and Ireland under the Logic brand. We want to further develop our commercial capabilities and collect relevant segment learnings to actively participate in this fast-evolving business environment and consumer trends. In parallel, we will keep advocating for better enforcement of existing regulations for the segment to ensure consumer safety and prevent underage use. Beyond these developments, we continue our efforts towards future innovation. Underpinning our broad innovation effort is the current scope of more than 90 projects in technology development and scientific research.
The majority of these are related to our priority segment, heated tobacco sticks. Having said that, we are also deploying resources behind exploratory segments to build robust and sustainable future pipelines for each, but as I mentioned, in a disciplined manner. This gives us sufficient maneuvering space and enables agility within as consumer needs and behaviors continuously develop. As a result, and also mentioned by Vassilis earlier, you can see in the graph on the right-hand side, we have been increasing the number of patent filings in the RRP field since we started our RRP journey. This significant effort places us into the top 50 applicants at the European Patent Office for two consecutive years. We are working on many patentable ideas leading to greater competitiveness, and we aim to turn the most promising ones into unique future propositions with a commercial potential.
Our reduced-risk science strategy has a critical part to play in our overall RP strategy. Above all, we want to ensure that we deliver products with scientifically demonstrated reduced-risk potential that consumers prefer and choose to use. In doing so, we must take a holistic approach from fundamental scientific research to product performance assessment. We should strive for reduced-risk claims where, at the same time, we seek superior sensorial and functional satisfaction. Secondly, we know that the reduced-risk aspect is one of the key consumer drivers. Thirdly, we have to be ready for scientific data of our products potentially becoming a regulatory requirement for commercialization in the future. Lastly, we believe that active stakeholder engagement with reduced-risk scientific evidence is hugely important if we are to be recognized as an industry leader and for success in the RP category.
Our reduced-risk scientific efforts in the area have already started to indicate reduced-risk potential of our products. For example, chemical analysis has indicated that selected constituent yields were significantly lower in our HTS aerosol than the reference smoke of a cigarette, and our in vitro studies provide convincing evidence to support the reduced toxicity potential when compared to a reference cigarette. Such data has been published as peer-reviewed literature, and we plan to leverage further opportunities to expose our scientific data to the public. For more details, please refer to jtscience.com. The goal of reduced-risk science is not only to achieve regulatory-endorsed reduced-risk claims, but to ensure that these claims can be maintained over time for the sustainable growth of our RRP business and ultimately of our entire tobacco business. This brings me to the end of my presentation.
We are genuinely excited about the plans to significantly increase our presence in the growing category and are confident that through a combination of competitive products and our enhanced commercial approach, we will achieve our ambition. Thank you. I now turn the floor back to Jerome for the Q&A session.
Thank you, Tsutsui-san. We will now open the Q&A session. Joining Eddy, Vassilis, Natasa, and Tsutsui-san on stage is Kato-san, Chief Financial Officer of the JT Group. Welcome, Kato-san. Before we get started, I will cover some housekeeping items. Since we've just released and discussed our first-quarter results, we would appreciate it if your questions could focus in priority on the materials shared today. Also, to maximize interactions with the management team, please limit yourself to two questions. If time allows, we will come back to you for more question opportunities.
Lastly, to ask questions, please use the raise hand functionality at the top of your Teams screen. When your name is called, please unmute your microphone and introduce yourself. Just waiting for the raise hand. Otherwise, I don't see if you're asking. Thank you. Miyake-san, please.
Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. This is Haruka Miyake from Morgan Stanley. My first question is on the total market outlook and implications for JTI's volume outlook that you provided. It'd be great if you could help me bridge a few of the industry volume outlook charts that you shared in the beginning of the presentation. I am looking at slide number seven, nine, and 18.
And given that JTI's Western European mix is higher than EMEA, for instance, projecting JTI's combustibles volume growth outlook down the road, should we assume greater decline than the negative 2.5% CAGR that you're assuming for combustibles in slide 9 on a global basis? But you're also, at the same time, assuming stable volume in the next three years. So I'm trying to bridge the messages here. And I ask this because Japan was a case where combustibles decline ended up being so significant in the first phase of RRP market penetration. But it may also not be fully fair to use Japan's initial case as a, I guess, a comparative basis for international markets. And I also understand that you can take pricing to more than offset the volume decline in general.
But it'd be very helpful if you could provide additional information on what you assume for JTI's volume outlook from here on.
Thank you, Miyake-san. So the question is around our outlook volume for 2035, whether Western Europe's decline rate would be worse off than the 2.5% that we've highlighted in the material, and also which would be the main trends that we're seeing in that industry outlook. Let me start with an answer, and please complete my answer if you have some points to add. Thank you again for your question. And let us just, I think your key question is about the volume's behavior as the segment continues to evolve, and especially on the geographies that we described because it's evolving in an unequal way between Western Europe and other regions.
Just to go back to our track record of volume growth, as you saw in the presentations, we have been growing our volumes consistently for the last five years. I think we can go even further back and see that, and it's mostly organic. Actually, in the last four years, it's all organic growth, and this organic growth is helped basically by the fact that we compensate the market decline by the share of market increases, and the momentum of our share of market increases continues. And in fact, in the beginning of this year, we see even stronger momentum, but looking at the longer term, I think the average decline we have for the combustibles is not exactly the same by region. Already in Western Europe, we have, and in some of our key markets, we have been witnessing declines that are above this average.
Our model projects that this will continue to some extent. I don't foresee the same rhythm of acceleration of the heated tobacco segment as we saw in Japan. I think that's understandable. We are monitoring this. As you know, now we have a history and data points for many years. So the shift of consumers is happening more gradually. That's exactly the key point of our modeling and the way we are projecting the consumer movements. So from that point of view, I wouldn't expect that the industry size is going to decline in Western Europe is going to accelerate as the development of the heated tobacco sticks continues already at the same rate as it has started in the last two or three years.
I would consider also that even if it's not so much the point of your question, but we can come back to this later, we will have the opportunity, using the strength of our brands, of course, to make sure that our revenues continue to grow by taking pricing wherever that is necessary. I hope this answers your question.
Yes. Thank you. Essentially, we should be expecting lighter volume decline than the 2.5% negative rate for the global. If we just take the Western European region, how is it perceiving that they just think this data?
Sorry. You mean the Western Europe decline rate of whether it's above or below that 2.5%?
Yes, exactly. I think the answer was that many of the other regions, I think Russia was also a part of that, were showing a lot higher decline rates than the other markets.
So essentially, even going down the road, even if the global cigarette volume decline is projected at 2.5% negative CAGR, we should be expecting the Western European region's volume decline for combustibles to be milder than that. And you can take additional pricing to more than offset that impact.
If I just can clarify. In fact, already historically, the Western Europe region decline is bigger than the average global industry decline. Of course, this has been disrupted, as you know very much, by the recent COVID, reduced mobility, which influenced a little bit market size temporarily for a couple of years. So what I was trying to say in my answer is that the trend that we have seen over the last years will remain the same with Western Europe market decline, mature market decline, a little bit higher than the other regions.
Exactly because also the heated tobacco stick segment has, as you know, started to have penetration mostly in this geography versus the other regions. And it's only part of our model, of course, that as we move in time, some of our more mature markets, the ones that would also find their classification in what I showed before, earnings market, will have less possibility of volume resilience. But this will be compensated by the earnings and share of market markets and largely also by the share of market markets where the volume acquisition of our model is where it's the biggest one. I hope this clarifies.
Yes. Thank you very much. Just another question from me. You have the target of mid-teens % HTS market share for 2028. Could you maybe highlight what the target is specifically for Japan, given that you're already at 9.3%?
Thank you, Miyake-san.
So the question is about our HTS share of segment in Japan specifically vis-à-vis our 2028 ambition.
Thank you, Miyake-san, for the question. I think we haven't given a very specific number and only indicating mid-teen at this point in time. I think in 2028, our ambition is not to stay where we are today. Yes, we are getting very close to 10% at this point in time. We want to grow as fast as we can. And hopefully, we want to exceed this mid-teen indication. But it's too early to be precise that at this point in time. So I think if you can stay with us with this indication at this point in time, we will try to graduate our more specificness over time. And we're very confident achieving the mid-teen target for Japan and elsewhere as well. Thank you. Great.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Miyake-san.
Again, if you want to ask a question, please use the raise hand functionality at the top of your screen. Fujiwara-san, please. You can unmute yourself.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Okay. Thank you very much. Hi. This is Satoshi Fujiwara from Nomura Tokyo. Actually, the recent success of Ploom X in Japan is really encouraging. So I have one question. Could you highlight more about what you have learned in Japan and what kind of learnings in Japan you can transfer to overseas Ploom rollout? Thank you.
Thank you, Fujiwara-san. So the question is around the learnings on Ploom X in Japan and how much we can transfer to the other launches.
Yes.
Thank you, Fujiwara-san. Maybe I'll try to highlight a few things. And then maybe Natasa, maybe you want to complement me.
I think one of the biggest learnings we have had in Japan is really about how do we retain consumers and how do we make sure that the consumer will not drop off along the journey, and highlighting the importance of that and building the programs that you have already heard from Natasa and measuring its effectiveness is the ongoing learning, but at the same time, it was a very big learning in order to shape our launch activities in the U.K., Italy, and Portugal, and so on and so forth, so I'll highlight this retention as one of the key learnings that we have got in Japan. Natasa.
Thank you, Tsutsui-san. In addition to what Tsutsui-san explained, we also know that it is an obviously competitive environment in RRP in general.
So in addition to having an excellent and very strong, well-performing product, we also need to have a very strong brand. So one big learning is that we need powerful launches in order to build the awareness to create acquisition and retention of the product. It is a new product in the category. And a brand which speaks to this target audience, like we've seen before of innovators and early adopters, helps us also to create the loyalty around this product and the brand and therefore retention. We also learned that engaging with consumers in a seamless consumer journey across all the online and offline channels, so in a fully omnichannel approach, helps to bring the brand to market and ensures a seamless route to consumer, which ultimately creates this retention because this is not about just launching or just selling devices.
It is about creating users and retaining them in the RRP category in our product as well, so we also have a very strong, as you've seen, loyalty program with our Ploom Club, where members actually tend to have a much higher retention once they join the Ploom Club, and we're applying, obviously, all these learnings to the new markets, like we just did in Italy and the U.K. and all the upcoming markets.
Yeah, if I may, there's just something I wanted to add on to complement Natasa's comment. Since January last year, we have done the integration of the two tobacco businesses, one team, and I have to say that as part of your question, one of our ability to really learn with a view of a global kind of geographic expansion of the proposition HTS has been phenomenal.
So all the learnings that my colleagues have just mentioned have been very well embedded into all the plans that we are currently developing for international, which is now part of the One Tobacco. It's important to mention that because sometimes I'm being asked the question, "What is the benefit of the unification of the two businesses?" And this is clearly one of them. That learning is not just for the domestic market in Japan, but of course, for all of the specificity of consumer-centric approach to make sure that when we go to market, we have leveraged as much as possible all the learning that has come from the experience of witnessing some of our competitors being earlier than we were actively present on that market and other markets around the world. And that's a compliment I wanted to provide. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I hope you have success overseas in the future. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Yoshida-san. Yoshida-san, if you can unmute yourself. Yoshida-san, could you unmute yourself? We couldn't hear you. I see you're unmuted, but we can't hear you.
Oh, hello? Yes. Oh, sorry. This is Emi Yoshida from JPMorgan. Sorry, who is the trouble? So once again, could you kindly give us the HTS market share ratio for the main region in 2022? So just like the page nine. So I think you have the forecast in 2035. But could you kindly give us the current market share ratio, HTS market share ratio? And also, I think you are trying to expand the HTS category and then take more of the market share.
Do you think you need to spend more marketing cost on competitors in order to take the market share going forward? So this is one question related to HTS market.
Thank you, Yoshida-san. So if I understood correctly your question, you want to know what is the HTS industry size in 2022 and also whether we need to accelerate the marketing spend in order to reach our 2028 ambition, correct?
Yes. Yeah. Whether you need to spend more marketing cost than competitors.
Yes. Hello, Yoshida-san. Let me answer the first part of the question, and then Vassilis will follow up with your secondary question. As to the HTS representation by the clusters in Asia, HTS represents in 2022, 16% of the total industry, 13% in 2022 for Western Europe, and 4% for EMEA. That's the current breakdown that we see. And maybe Vassilis?
Yeah.
I think this covers the first question. You had also a second question, which was about the marketing spend and whether this marketing spend is adequate for meeting our ambition of getting into our mid-teens share of the segment by 2028. As you heard in the presentation, just in the next three years, we are planning to invest JPY 3 billion, excuse me, JPY 300 billion. And that includes basically commercial support behind heated tobacco sticks. There's a part in this amount of JPY 300 billion that is behind R&D capabilities and a small part behind CapEx, given that we have already built our manufacturing capacity for this expansion as we speak. I think that this investment is adequate, and it was planned by detailed work with this market. But you should also consider a few points when you're judging the level of this investment.
The first is that we will be doing the launches in markets. We already have a commercial infrastructure. We have our organizations that have a lot of capabilities in marketing and sales, very strong relationships with the trade. Another element that plays in understanding the level of investment and the impact it has is also the fact that we enter markets where the segment, the category is already known to the consumer. It's understood by the consumer. So we don't have to extensively invest in explaining the category as there is already a significant consumer pool and a profit pool which we are targeting.
And in addition to that, as you saw in the presentations, we have for the consumable parts, the heated tobacco sticks, we have the advantage of using very strong brands, our GFBs, which have a very strong awareness, a lot of credibility in terms of consumer expectations for the smoking experience, excuse me, and the sensorial experience. So I would think that these things are adding a lot on top of the JPY 300 billion. Of course, as we are advancing in our deployment and depending on the rate of adoption of consumer, we will be revisiting our programs, our marketing and sales efforts. And if needed, we will adjust. But we consider we should be very confident with this level of investment that we can achieve the objective.
Thank you very much. So the last question from me is about the combustible market.
For the combustible market, I think on page 30, you explained about the market share in the world of your combustible brands. Then I think for Winston, you said that you are narrowing the gap toward the number one player. And also for the Camel brand, it is showing an exponential growth. Could you explain that from here? Do you think the Camel brand will continue to outperform the market? And then Winston will also see the strong growth from here. For us, that is the reason behind those two brand strengths and all that.
Thank you, Yoshida-san. The question is around the growth of Winston and growth of Camel, whether both can continue to grow, and how we foresee the outlook for these two brands.
Let me try to begin the answer of the question because you referred to the combustible market, and then we can also add on specifics on the brands. You're absolutely right that we are growing our combustible business. And in fact, over the last since 2017, five, six years, the gap we have with the number one in combustible has been covered by 60%. So we are reducing the gap to number one. Actually, the same happens also in our brands. As you saw in Natasa's presentation, Winston is on a continuous growth trend, and the gap it has with it's a number two brand in the world for the time being, and it's getting close to the number one. Again, in the last four years, having halved the difference in volumes between number one and number two.
We have a lot of track record of success of the growth of this driven by the brands, exactly as you say. And Camel, number three brand in the world now, is demonstrating a very significant growth, both in the areas where it has been historically a strong brand, but also in new geographies where Camel has not been so much known, and they don't represent the historical strongholds of the brand. And the reality is that this brand has a lot of equity, even if it has lower awareness, and we're using it to address emerging consumer needs and motivations in markets like Japan or the Philippines. You may remember that Camel already has been very strong in Japan on the little cigars category, which over the last two years, as the tax equalized, underwent a significant decline.
So the market share growth of Camel in Japan is, in a way, getting back what it was already part of our organization and market share. And it helps us go beyond the 60% share of market in the combustibles in Japan. But also, the Camel mix adapted for the consumer needs in the Philippines and is addressing the affordability issues of the market and is growing very strongly also there. So there is a dual strength of Camel, one coming from the stronghold markets, historically a lot of them in the Western Europe region, Eastern Europe region, but also they are also coming from new geographies where the brand is deployed to address emerging consumer choice motivations. I don't know if you want to add something, Natasa on this.
Yeah, I can just build a few points from a brand perspective.
I mean, we see that, and we're obviously very proud to have two of the top three global international brands. We see Winston, as Vassilis mentioned, grew and is continuing to grow and to strengthen its position as the number two. I mean, globally, consistently narrowing the gap to number one. So it's half of what it was a few years ago. So we're very optimistic about Winston, obviously, and confident that the brand can continue. We're already number one in a few of the segments, as I've shared before, and we have a very strong and broad portfolio with Winston covering a very wide audience of consumers and speaking very nicely to very interesting audiences across the different markets. With Camel, we are also enjoying this fantastic momentum. As Vassilis mentioned, we seem to have unleashed this iconic power of the brand.
It is one of the most iconic tobacco brands out there, and we're building on that success outside of the typical strongholds that we had over the years. It's becoming a true power brand and holding very strongly the number three as the brand is adapting to meet really the new and evolving consumer needs and providing different experiences across new markets as well.
So if I may add something, Yoshida-san, which might be interesting. I think our share performance in combustible over the last few years has been phenomenal. And just to back up on what Vassilis had said before, the gap to number one has been reduced between 2017 and 2022 from 283 billion sticks down to 120 billion sticks. So it has been a phenomenal kind of progression, if you will, of the reduction in the gap to number one.
Now, sometimes people ask, and I'll tell you why I think it's relevant. Some people ask, "Well, how have you done that?" That's a combination of many different factors, obviously. But we have phenomenal brands, as Natasa said, and I think we have found a way over many, many years to unleash the potential of those brands, as she just mentioned. We have also a portfolio approach, which I think is second to none and works very well for us. It has helped us tremendously in gaining share across a very wide footprint of market. We operate in about 130 markets. Certainly, we have an excellent engagement with the trade, which I think also is best in class. Although it's difficult for me to say, but that's the feedback that we're getting from the trade.
Finally, I'm always impressed, and credit to the teams around the world for the excellence in execution in everything that we do. The reason why I wanted to take a minute to mention that is because I think that when you think about this new revenue stream and ultimately profit stream that RRP will generate, especially with the focus on HTS, as we have mentioned, I believe that all of these elements that have led to our phenomenal success in combustibles over the last few years will bring fruits, will support our major initiative to expand the presence of Ploom in particular in the geographies that we mentioned during the presentation. Just a little add-on that I think strengthened a little bit the storyline that we have. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Yoshida-san. Our next question comes from Saji-san. Saji-san, please unmute yourself. Okay.
We can hear you. Okay.
Okay. I have two questions. First question is a very easy question. I'd like to confirm JT's basic strategy on global R&P businesses. Can JT, our global number two R&P player, get a higher return on investment versus PMI or BAT on global R&P businesses? I understand that the first entrants or PMI or BAT will need to spend a lot of money to expand R&P market, but a follower or JT to the front runner can save this money on growing market. Consumer already knows that JT's combustibles brand and JT has a very rich business experience on global tobacco businesses. Is this correct? So just to repeat the question, you're asking whether the fact that JT is coming in later than competitors in R&P will actually accelerate the rate of returns by not having to make the initial investments.
Yes.
Or very smaller investment to entry for each market for the front runner or BAT or PMI.
Thank you.
Okay. Saji-san, thank you for the question, and I will maybe start answering the question. I think, as you saw in Eddy's presentation, it is very important to keep in mind how we see the future, and the growth does come from the heated tobacco and RRP category overall. So therefore, from our point of view, strengthening our ability to compete in this important category is paramount. And the consumers are moving from where they used to be and becoming more open to consider RRP as an option. And the industry, including ourselves, will continue to innovate to even better our product and offerings over the period of time.
From our point of view, not investing in RRP is not really an option, but it's more about how could we get more effective in competing in this very competitive environment that we are in. I hope that today's presentation has demonstrated the confidence level that we have behind the category and specifically around Ploom. This is a never-ending story from our point of view that as we go into different markets and to communicate with a different set of consumers, we will not only promote ourselves, but also learn from them so that the generations and different offerings that will come in the future will even have a higher effectiveness and return on investment overall. I think, as Vassilis also mentioned, currently, we do see a good profitability in HTS overall.
It does require investment to acquire and retain consumers, but we believe that will pay off over time. So it's more the time horizon I think we see, and having done what we're doing gives us the strength and sustainability of the business overall.
Okay. Thank you. And the second question is simple for Vassilis's CFO. At a briefing in this February, the company explained that the CAGR target for adjusted OP on FX neutral basis meets mid- to high single-digit growth in the medium-term plan or medium-term business plan 2023. But today's page 18 on your presentation is just a little bit different versus this target. These indicators on page 18, it means only the tobacco business. Is it correct?
Yes. So the question is whether the AOP that is pictured on slide 18 is JT Group or just the tobacco business.
Yep.
Thank you for the question.
This is Kato speaking. Yeah, your understanding is correct. The numbers and the shown in the presentation today is referring to the tobacco business only. What we have communicated in February was based on the JT Group, the total basis. Yeah, your understanding is basically correct.
Also, excluding for tobacco businesses, a more acceleration of the growth rate in the next three years. Is this correct? Because today's AOP target on page 18 is the low single-digit growth, but the consolidated basis target is a high mid to high single-digit growth. Excluding tobacco businesses, a more acceleration of the growth rate in the next three years?
Yeah. Let me clarify a little bit more about the, I guess, the definition.
In February, what we have communicated for the mid- to long-term basis target for the coming back to the mid- to high single-digit AOP growth, the constant currency, that was not referring to specifically for the coming three years. It's more about the mid- to long-term basis. So coming three years basis, we have also communicated our CAGR, the growth for the AOP at the constant currency will be the low single-digit. So that's also the difference. The first was clearly communicated for the coming three years AOP growth will be the low single-digit, but a little bit more longer-term horizon for the mid- to long-term, like the five years or more. We are trying to achieve the consistent target over the years, the coming back to the mid- to high single-digit growth. And also, please, this is a reminder from what we have presented in February.
As has been shown also in today's presentation, we are massively investing in the RRP and HTS and the expansion in the coming three years. But even though we are committed to deliver and grow our bottom line, so we are balancing the investment and also the profit growth. So yeah, this is just a reminder.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Tsutsui. Thank you, Saji-san. Our next question comes from Morita-san. Morita-san, can you please unmute yourself?
Can you hear us?
Yes, we can.
Okay. Thank you. So it's Morita from Daiwa Securities. So I have one question. Regarding the pricing strategy, so you commented the mid-single-digit pricing are possible over the next three years. So how about the long-term view? So could HTS category interfere with pricing strategy in HTS have higher market share?
So there are risks for HTS category take the leadership for pricing in total tobacco industry, and competitor make weak pricing for increased market share.
Thank you, Morita-san. So the question is whether HTS growth will disrupt the pricing strategy both from a combustibles standpoint but also from an RP perspective. Thank you. Let me try to answer this question. And I think, as you know, pricing is a very important part of the growth algorithm in our industry. And in the presentation also, when we discussed a bit the model and the projections that we're having for the future, Eddy explained that we are forecasting a gradual increase of the tax incidence of the heated tobacco stick category, which is a trend that has already started.
We expect it to become more concrete once, for example, in Europe, when we will have the new European tax directive that will give more formal classifications to the categories and tax incidences, and it's only in our understanding and view going to confirm the fact that it's going to be a gradual convergence of the taxation levels between the heated tobacco stick and the current cigarette and other combustibles. As a result, we should expect that pricing will also have to increase in the heated tobacco stick category, but of course, I think we expect to see a similar situation and model as we have seen in the combustible in the sense that tax will be passed into the consumer, and the pricing power of the heated tobacco stick category will be maintained, especially for strong brands.
As you remember, one of the reasons why we can execute strong pricing in combustible is because our brands have very strong equity. Winston, Camel, but also Mevius and LD, they have a very big strength with the consumer, and that gives us the possibility to grow our price when there is a tax increase and also when there is a cost increase and as a model for us to generate revenue growth. And that's behind also our effort to grow Ploom as a power brand, as explained before by Natasa, because we will have to capitalize on this equity as we will be also passing on tax increases and taking additional pricing. So overall, I think that the pricing model remains intact. I cannot necessarily foresee any interference of the pricing of the heated tobacco sticks to the combustible category.
We should also keep in mind that the prime motivation for consumers to choose the heated tobacco stick is not pricing. There is a number of other reasons why consumers are moving into the category, and pricing is much lower in their choice reasons for that. So I hope that responds to your question.
Thank you.
Thank you, Morita-san. We have time for one more question. I don't see any hands. So with that, I will turn it to Eddy for a - hold on. Sorry. We do have a question from Jennifer Maloney. Jennifer, can you please unmute yourself?
Hi. This is Jennifer Maloney from The Wall Street Journal. I wondered if you could talk about your strategy for the U.S. R&P market aside from your JV with Altria. I note that your Logic e-cigarette brand is one of the very few brands that have received FDA authorization.
I'm wondering what your plans are with that brand and if you have any other components to your U.S. strategy.
Thank you, Jennifer. So RRP strategy in the U.S.?
Yeah. So thank you for the question. I'll start briefly and then pass it on to Tsutsui-san. Indeed, we have one of the very few brands that can be commercialized in the U.S. in Logic. We use this as part of our exploratory territory. This is a brand that is successful in its own right, where we felt that we needed to deepen our understanding, always in the spirit of consumer-centricity, to see how best to compete in the space. We are still in that process, and therefore, we are kind of wait and see, and we will share with you any development that we deem is necessary to share.
The JV is quite exciting, though, so I don't want to just pass it. We have agreed not only on the HTS category with Altria, and some details have been already forwarded and shared with you all, but also, we have a mutual understanding that we will continue to explore on a global basis opportunities that make sense for us to look at together. I can't comment on that. This is a process going through right now. It's going very well. We're having very good discussions with our partners. And again, when there will be something meaningful to disclose, we will do so. But I'm sure Fujiwara-san, maybe you have some things to comment on that.
Thank you, Eddy. Thank you, Jennifer. Just to add one more thing.
I think everything but the JV. One challenge we need to consider is if we want to bring the newest and the most innovative that we have in our hands, it does have to go through the PMTA, which is very lengthy and costly. So in the exploratory category, in a way, we are not actively looking into bringing new products in the market apart from what we are doing in JV. But yes, you're right that we're very excited to be one of the few having an ability to compete in the U.S. with the products that we have there. So I hope it does a little bit of more color than what Eddy elaborated. Thank you.
Thanks very much. Are you exploring a range of RRP categories in the memorandum of understanding with Altria? It's not limited to heated tobacco, right?
Yes.
The memorandum of understanding brings the parties together to really look into what more can we do to look and not only about the U.S. as an opportunity, but also at the global scale. This will take some time for us to really go through the motion. It's a very good atmosphere that we have amongst the parties that we are sitting alongside the table. Once we have a bit more concrete plan, then I think we will come and share with you over time. Thanks very much. Thank you.
With this, I'll turn it to Eddy for some closing remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, Jerome. And thank you, everybody, for having attended this conference. I hope it resonated with you, that you found it helpful.
We have a new purpose, which we are very excited about, and we have a very clear strategy that derives from our understanding and our own assumptions as to where the industry is evolving. We have a laser-focused approach based around consumer-centricity, and that has been kind of a North Star driving our efforts in the company, and we are excited by what the future will bring. Our priorities, as we explained, are both in combustible and in HTS. This is where we see the bulk of the opportunity for us. But of course, we will remain flexible and agile in the way we approach ever-evolving consumer sentiment and also consumer taste for discovery of new things, new products, new ways of delivering satisfaction one way or the other.
We have, I'd like to believe, a proven track record in combustible, and there's no reason why we shouldn't duplicate the success of the past in the category of combustible into the new category of R&P. We will deliver in the medium and long-term sustainable growth by investing and following our consumers where they want to go. Consumer-centricity, again, is at the core of what we do. As was explained in the presentation as well, we've got assigned roles to the markets. The purpose of that is to be even more disciplined going forward to make sure that the world of R&P, which will be an expensive and long venture, will be funded appropriately by maximizing our return on investment in the combustible category.
Beyond HTS, as was recently discussed, we will continue to explore, explore where consumers want to go, also explore new technologies and new categories, emerging or new ones, to see where it makes sense for us to further invest in the longer term. We are in a state of readiness, and we are putting the money where our mouth is by having adequate resourcing behind our capabilities, be it R&D, be it in the digital sphere, or being in the infrastructure that we build in the various markets in which we operate.
So we have, over the long term, I think, a good balance between our combustibles presence and efforts where we believe that we still have opportunities to grow and in RRP where, yes, we have been late, but we've used the time where we had some delay and also some constraints with the supply chain issues around the microchip to really learn as to what some of our competitors were doing, what our consumers were up to, and we believe that we are now better equipped than ever before to start the geo-expansion of Ploom X in the various markets that we've explained. So in a nutshell, we feel confident about the future, excited about the future.
We will have more to share with you as time passes by, as we will have entered new markets and start gathering information for those markets, and we commit to stay in touch with you all. But thank you very much, and I hope you found the conference interesting and insightful. Thank you.
Thank you, Eddy. This concludes our event for today. If you have any follow-up questions, please reach out to the IR team at jt.ir@ jt.com, and we will follow up. Thank you. You may now disconnect.