All right. Good afternoon, everyone. We're going to get started here in a second. Hope everyone enjoyed lunch. Find your seats. Be great. It is my privilege once again to welcome Altria back to CAGNY. Joining us today are Chief Executive Officer, Billy Gifford, and Chief Financial Officer, Sal Mancuso. Please join me in thanking them for their continued support of the conference, including their sponsorship for the break tomorrow morning. The tobacco industry remains subject to significant shifts in consumer demand and regulatory dynamics. Against this, Altria remains committed to its continued pursuit of its vision to responsibly lead the transition of adult smokers to a smoke-free future. To enable this, the company has reshaped its portfolio of next-generation products over the past few years, while offerings now include on!, NJOY, and Ploom, among others.
Moreover, Altria continues to engage with stakeholders to support consistent enforcement against illicit vapor products that have become prevalent in the U.S. But speaking of the stability of its core business, Altria has been able to balance this investment in the future with consistent near-term results, exemplified by high-quality cash generation and healthy shareholder returns via dividend and share repurchase. And so Billy, with that, I'll now turn it over to you to bring it to life for us.
Thanks, Tim. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. We're excited to be back at CAGNY to discuss the significant progress we're making toward our vision to responsibly lead the transition of adult smokers to a smoke-free future. I'm joined today by Sal Mancuso, our Chief Financial Officer, and following our presentation, Murray Garnick, our General Counsel, and Heather Newman, our Chief Strategy and Growth Officer, will join us for the breakout session next door. Before we begin, we ask that you carefully review the safe harbor statement in today's presentation and the forward-looking and cautionary statements section in today's press release. These documents are available on altria.com, along with the reconciliations and further explanations of the non-GAAP financial measures we will discuss today. Future dividend payments and share repurchases remain subject to the discretion of Altria's board of directors.
All references in today's remarks to tobacco consumers or consumers within a specific tobacco category or segment refer to existing adult tobacco consumers, 21 years of age or older. Altria is moving beyond smoking. We're leading the way to transition millions of adult smokers to a potentially less harmful alternatives with our growing smoke-free portfolio. Today, our remarks will highlight how we're capturing the growing harm reduction opportunity in the U.S., maintaining the strength of our highly profitable core tobacco businesses, using our existing capabilities to expand beyond U.S. nicotine, and continuing our commitment to create substantial value for shareholders. First, let's discuss our understanding of U.S. tobacco consumers, which is central to our approach to the market. Over decades, we have built a deep understanding of tobacco consumers, the role tobacco products play in their lives, and why they choose specific products and brands.
In 2023 alone, we conducted research with over 50,000 consumers, analyzed more than 4 billion consumer transactions at retail, and engaged with consumers millions of times with their brands. In recent years, smokers have transitioned to smoke-free products at an accelerated pace, making achieving our vision more possible than ever. Of the 52 million tobacco consumers, we estimate that nearly 30% exclusively use smoke-free formats. We also estimate that total industry equivalized nicotine volumes increased by 3% in 2023, and by 1% over the past five years on a compounded annual basis. This marks a change from our prior estimates of low single-digit volume decline in total nicotine over the past several years, and we believe it's driven by the growth of illicit flavored disposable e-vapor products.
Today's tobacco consumers are seeking new options, including those that have the potential to reduce risk. In fact, approximately 2/3s of smokers are interested in potentially less harmful tobacco products. We're guided by consumers and by the science that strongly supports the significant public health benefit of moving smokers away from cigarettes. In our view, achieving a smoke-free future requires three critical elements. First, the entire industry operating within science-based regulation. Second, underage tobacco use continuing to decline. And third, smokers who can't or won't quit having the choice to transition to a variety of smoke-free products authorized by the FDA. This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of Congress granting the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products. We supported FDA regulation because we believed science and evidence-based regulation would help address societal concerns about tobacco products, promote public health, and benefit tobacco consumers.
While we still believe federal regulation is critical, we have a long way to go to realize its potential. FDA must recognize that harm reduction is about smokers. Consumers are misinformed about the health risks associated with different tobacco products and the role of nicotine. In fact, a survey of U.S. adults indicates that 82% incorrectly believe that nicotine is a carcinogen. Smokers overwhelmingly look to the FDA to deliver on harm reduction by giving them more information and more choice. To date, the FDA has authorized only a handful of smoke-free products, woefully insufficient to meet growing consumer demand. The marketplace is being overrun by illicit flavored, disposable e-vapor products that are driving underage use.
To make harm reduction a reality, we are engaging extensively with the FDA and other key stakeholders to advocate for policies and actions that will turn the tide on these trends and accelerate a positive impact on public health. To stem the sale of illicit products at retail, we work with legislatures in several states that have passed or are considering legislation requiring manufacturers to certify that they are compliant with FDA requirements. Initial data from Louisiana, one state that passed this legislation, show a significant decline in shipment volume to retail for illegal disposable products and an increase in products for which manufacturers certified compliance. The good news is virtually all stakeholders agree on the need for a fully regulated marketplace. Our business strategy is aligned with the overwhelming public support for harm reduction as the right path forward to the benefit of smokers and public health.
Our research and experience show that different smoke-free alternatives appeal to different smokers. We believe we have a compelling portfolio and pipeline of smoke-free offerings to meet a wide range of consumers' needs. In e-vapor, we have NJOY ACE, the only pod-based product with market authorization from the FDA. In MST, Copenhagen remains the long-standing category leader. In the rapidly growing oral nicotine pouch category, we have on! and on! PLUS, our internally developed nicotine pouch product for which we expect to submit a PMTA in the first half of this year. In heated tobacco, we're working toward a PMTA submission for Ploom through our partnership with JT Group. And we're continuing to develop SWIC, an exciting heated tobacco capsule product. Let's now turn to how we're activating against our consumer insights within each smoke-free category.
We'll start with e-vapor, the largest and most successful smoke-free category for transitioning smokers away from cigarettes in the U.S. In 2023, our data show consumers transitioned from cigarettes to e-vapor at over 3x the rate of transition to other smoke-free categories. This is an encouraging sign and consistent with our belief that most smokers are looking for satisfying inhalable alternatives to cigarettes. At the end of 2023, we estimate the e-vapor category included approximately 17 million vapers, with 12 million being exclusive. Our data show e-vapor appeals to a wide range of adult consumers and that the gender and ethnic makeup of vapers generally mirrors that of smokers. At the same time, relative to smokers, more vapers are between the ages of 21-29, have higher income levels, and live in more urban areas.
Turning to volume, we estimate the category grew by approximately 35% last year, driven by illicit flavored disposable products, which we believe represented over 50% of the category. Additionally, we estimate pod-based volumes declined by approximately 15% and represented between 15%-20% of category volumes. Given these shifts, it is important to highlight what is happening in the disposable segment. We estimate the number of disposable vapers increased by more than 60% to over nine million in the past year, and now represents more than half of adult vapers. Unfortunately, the lack of enforcement and irresponsible marketing practices for illicit disposable products are contributing to youth usage. The results of the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey indicated that flavored disposable e-vapor products were the most commonly used tobacco product among youth.
No one under 21 should use any tobacco product, and underage use jeopardizes the tobacco harm reduction opportunity e-vapor presents for adult smokers. We remain committed to preventing underage use through our responsible marketing practices, retailing efforts, and support of positive youth development programs. Let's now shift to NJOY and discuss the early momentum we've built. In our first seven months of ownership, we strengthened NJOY's supply chain to enable our expansion plans, closed inventory gaps, and improved in-stock conditions. More than doubled NJOY's retail footprint to over 75,000 stores, and began elevating the brand's presence at retail with higher visibility fixture signage and introduced NJOY's first retail trade program, both of which we expect to build awareness by significantly improving our in-store positioning. These were important first steps to establish the foundation for NJOY's long-term growth plans.
In 2024, we are focusing on continuous improvement across trial generation, availability, presence at retail, and connecting with consumers. Let's start with trial generation. In the fourth quarter, we began testing a variety of trial offers in a limited number of retail accounts. Initial results were encouraging and demonstrated that consumers are interested in trying NJOY. Diving into one retail account example, share grew by over nine percentage points versus the pre-promotional periods. Competitive pod brands ceded share in this retail account over the same time period. And despite the limited reach of these tests, NJOY's national retail share increased 0.3 percentage points in November and another 0.3 in December. This year, we are incorporating insights from these tests in our future promotional plans. To further improve availability, we plan to expand distribution of NJOY to approximately 100,000 stores this year.
At retail, we know adult vapers are more likely to purchase brands they can find often and easily. We expect NJOY's trade program to meaningfully impact our presence and visibility by taking NJOY from the bottom of the shelf to a premium fixture position. Fixture resets are well underway, and we expect the majority to be completed in the first half of the year. Adult vapers are looking for a dependable and quality product. NJOY's new equity will emphasize its unique attributes and exceptional vaping experience. NJOY's message is simple and communicates what sets NJOY apart: a premium product with more puffs, more battery life, and more to enjoy. Consumers will see NJOY's refreshed look, new signage, and updated packaging soon. With that, let's take a look. We believe we can build brand loyalty with NJOY over the long term through its premium quality and unique attributes.
As we've shared in the past, our research indicates that NJOY is a competitive alternative for both smokers and vapers once they've tried the product. We look forward to bringing NJOY's exciting proposition to more consumers across the U.S. this year. On the regulatory front, PMTAs for NJOY's menthol products remain pending with the FDA. We believe the science and research supporting NJOY's menthol applications are compelling. Many of the HPHCs found in cigarettes are either absent or substantially reduced in Ace Menthol. In addition, NJOY provided data showing Ace Menthol promoted substantially higher rates of complete switching after three months relative to Ace Classic Tobacco, an important consideration for the FDA. The scientific evidence we submitted also demonstrated youth use of Ace Menthol was either not detectable or exceedingly low.
In short, we believe NJOY presents a very strong case for Ace Menthol, and we remain optimistic about FDA authorization. We're also finalizing PMTAs for blueberry and watermelon-flavored NJOY products with age-gated Bluetooth technology. Similar to Ace Menthol, our data show NJOY's flavored products are more effective at promoting adult switching relative to Ace Classic Tobacco. In addition, we've demonstrated the age-gating restrictions are effective at preventing underage access in virtually all cases. We believe our submission provides a solution to address critical gaps FDA has been seeking to fill to protect youth from e-vapor products. Before moving on, I want to briefly mention our ongoing litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission. As you know, JUUL has asserted patent infringement claims against NJOY, and conversely, NJOY has asserted claims against JUUL.
Hearings for both cases are scheduled for later this year, and both parties are seeking import bans against the other. We do not expect any final decisions before 2025. We continue to believe in the strength of our claims and that we have strong defenses against JUUL's claims. Let's now move to oral tobacco, the second-largest smoke-free category in the U.S. We believe our portfolio of oral products remains a competitive advantage and important to achieving our smoke-free ambitions. In 2023, we continued to lead in MST with Copenhagen and delivered strong results in oral nicotine pouches with on! The oral tobacco product segment reported higher adjusted OCI and OCI margins. Adjusted OCI grew by 5.5%, and adjusted OCI margins expanded to 67.4%, an increase of more than one percentage point versus the prior year.
2023 was a year of robust expansion for the category, led by the growth of oral nicotine pouches. Oral tobacco industry volume grew an estimated 7.5% in the back half of the year, and the oral category included approximately seven million consumers. Last year, Helix grew volume and retail share while improving profitability. Volume increased by nearly 39%, and on!'s retail share expanded by 1.8 percentage points versus the prior year. on!'s retail price increased over 37% as we continued to optimize investments in the growing category. on! continues to expand reach and build brand loyalty. Consumer awareness of on! grew nearly 15% year-over-year in the second half of 2023.
We're also encouraged by the increasing levels of both trial and adoption, with repeat purchases up more than 30% over the same period. Helix remains focused on responsibly growing the business for the long term. We're excited about our growth prospects for on! and on! PLUS, once authorized. As we've shared in the past, while a small sample size, our early research indicates that about three out of four dippers and nicotine pouch consumers preferred on! PLUS over Zyn on a blind basis. We continue to believe on! PLUS has the potential to contribute meaningfully to Helix's growth in the U.S. market. In a moment, Sal will provide more detail on our early test results and plans to compete with on! PLUS internationally. In heated tobacco, we believe our compelling pipeline of products will appeal to smokers seeking inhalable alternatives to e-vapor products.
These consumers are looking to reduce the social friction associated with cigarettes, but they also want a satisfying, real tobacco taste. While we recognize heated tobacco products can play an important role in harm reduction, the category remains nonexistent in the U.S. We estimate heated tobacco will make up approximately 5% of the U.S. nicotine space over the long term. Our joint venture with JT strengthens our heated tobacco product portfolio. Our research indicates that some smokers looking for an innovative heated tobacco product are hesitant to try something entirely new. When paired with the Marlboro brand, we expect Ploom stick format to be an approachable and familiar heated tobacco proposition for U.S. smokers.
We're continuing the regulatory preparations to bring Ploom to the U.S. market, and we continue to expect to file a PMTA in the first half of 2025, and an MRTP later that year. Our research also indicates that some smokers are interested in innovative heated tobacco products that don't resemble cigarettes. This is where SWIC, our heated tobacco capsule product, fits in. SWIC is a new type of heated tobacco product that does not have the visual cues of cigarettes. As we work to finalize the SWIC proposition, we're encouraged by consumer research that shows strong head-to-head performance against competitive products. In our research, we found that SWIC's nicotine satisfaction and product design outperformed both IQOS 3 and glo. And we intend to test SWIC internationally using a similar approach as we have with on! PLUS.
We are encouraged by the smoke-free progress we've made, and we believe that with our growing portfolio, we can achieve the 2028 U.S. smoke-free volume and revenue goals we introduced last March. I'll now turn it over to Sal to discuss our highly profitable smokable segment, plans to expand beyond U.S. nicotine, and our continuing commitment to shareholder returns.
Thanks, Billy. In our smokable product segment, which includes our cigarette and cigar businesses, our strategy is to maximize profitability over the long term while balancing investments in Marlboro with funding the growth of smoke-free products. Over our history, we have successfully balanced steadily growing profitability while maintaining Marlboro stability. We manage success over the long term, and over the past five years, the smokable product segment has grown adjusted OCI by $2.3 billion, representing a compounded annual growth rate of 4.9%. During the same time period, Marlboro share has remained stable with an average annual retail share decline of about a quarter of a share point. PM USA continues to make investments in Marlboro to maintain the brand's leadership in the cigarette category.
These include loyalty building programs like Marlboro Rewards and revenue growth management tools to efficiently offer value to Marlboro smokers under economic stress. As a result of our comprehensive approach, Marlboro continues to be the aspirational brand in the category. In fact, over the past three years, Marlboro grew its share of premium more than any other brand. The smokable product segment continues to be a significant contributor to our earnings. Over the past five years, smokable adjusted OCI margins have expanded from nearly 51% to 60%. This impressive increase of over 9 percentage points occurred while we invested in foundational infrastructure that supports our smokable segment and our growing smoke-free portfolio, and includes digital capabilities and a more flexible manufacturing footprint. With that foundation largely established, our innovative spending is now better aligned to the respective products it supports.
As a result, beginning in Q1, you should expect to see a shift in innovative spending from the smokable product segment to the all other category. Before moving on, let's discuss cigarette category volumes. In 2023, cigarette industry volume declines were elevated from historical levels, due in part to macroeconomic factors and the growth of illegal flavored disposable e-vapor products. We estimate that the growth of these products contributed to cigarette industry declines in a range of 1.5%-2.5% over the last 12 months. We are extremely pleased with our leading U.S. tobacco brands, and we are confident in our ability to make significant progress on the harm reduction opportunity in front of us. Longer term, we believe we can create incremental value through adjacent opportunities outside the U.S. nicotine space.
This includes international, innovative, smoke-free, and U.S. non-nicotine.... Over the last year, our teams evaluated these opportunities and defined strategies to guide discipline participation. Let's begin with our approach to international smoke-free. We believe we can generate incremental income by commercializing our smoke-free portfolio in countries with proven market potential. Our 2028 goal is to compete in the top innovative oral tobacco markets and develop a pathway to participate in heated tobacco and e-vapor markets. Our acquisition of Helix International paved the way for our presence in the nicotine pouch category, which we estimate to represent a growing $1-$2 billion total addressable market internationally. In the near term, we plan to focus our international efforts on this fast-growing space. In August, we launched on! PLUS in Sweden in the e-commerce channel, and we are encouraged by the early results. Consumers see on!
Plus as a unique offering with strong repeat purchase rates of over 30%. on! PLUS is competitive with the leading oral nicotine pouch product in Sweden, and 89% of first-time purchasers were competitive pouch consumers. Encouragingly, we have not seen cannibalization of the original on! product. In fact, our data show that on! PLUS is providing a positive impact to the entire on! brand, driving increased volume for the original on! offering. In 2024, we're planning a broader expansion of on! PLUS in Sweden and a targeted launch in the United Kingdom, where the original on! product is already in distribution. We will continue to be guided by adult consumers to meet their evolving preferences. Our expansion plans incorporate consumer feedback from the test launch, including enhanced packaging with a convenient lid for pouch disposal, strong language to clearly communicate on!
PLUS's proprietary soft feel pouch, and two flavor line extensions, berry and citrus. We estimate international heated tobacco and e-vapor opportunities together represent a $35 billion-$50 billion total addressable market today. We plan to develop a disciplined strategy to bring these products to international markets at the appropriate times. As we chart a path for international growth, we are evaluating the strongest go-to-market pathways, organically and with partners, that have the potential to accelerate our global presence and drive future enterprise growth. We are excited about the international opportunity and look forward to sharing updates on our progress in the future. Non-nicotine adjacencies present another incremental opportunity to drive revenue growth. In 2023, our research with over 10,000 adult consumers informed our non-nicotine strategy. We learned that consumers increasingly want to improve their physical and emotional state.
Specifically, they're looking to elevate their every day through moments of enhanced energy, focus, stress relief, and relaxation. Our research indicates that nearly 60% of adults are struggling to find effective solutions for stress and relaxation, and more than 40% are seeking better options to elevate their energy and focus. I'm sorry. Collectively, we estimate solutions for these four areas represent a $100 billion total addressable market in the U.S. We have built world-class capabilities, and many are directly transferable to non-nicotine. We believe there is an opportunity to use these competencies to provide better solution than those available today. When applied to the right adjacent categories, our capabilities in science, high-speed manufacturing, unique product formats, trade relationships, and distribution and logistics can provide a significant competitive advantage.
Our non-nicotine growth strategy is focused on testing and learning in the U.S. market. In 2023, we executed a small retail test with several products, formats, and merchandising concepts. This year, we plan to expand this test to 10 organically and partner-developed products. Consumer feedback from these tests will inform future plans and potential investments. Longer term, our goal is to commercialize and broadly distribute at least five products by 2028.... while these products may not contain age-restricted ingredients, we are focused on developing and marketing products for adults. While we invest in our future, we stand on the strong foundation of a core business that has delivered significant cash returns for many decades.
Over the last five years, we have returned more than $37 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, and grown adjusted diluted earnings per share by 4.2% on a compounded annual basis. We expect to continue to grow our EPS over time. Our 2028 goal is to deliver mid-single digits adjusted diluted EPS growth on a compounded annual basis. We believe this goal provides flexibility to allocate the necessary resources to advance our vision, while continuing to drive earnings growth through our core tobacco businesses. We also expect to deliver strong margins while investing behind innovative smoke-free products. Our 2028 goal is to maintain a total adjusted OCI margin of at least 60% in each of the next five years. In 2023, our total adjusted OCI margin was 60.3%.
We have a long-standing commitment to a strong and consistently growing dividend. Our progressive dividend goal targets mid-single digits dividend per share growth annually. Last year, we increased our quarterly dividend by 4.3% to $0.98 per share. This marked our 58th increase in the past 54 years. The strong cash generation of our businesses has annually produced over $1 billion of cash in excess of our dividend payments in each of the last five years. As we consider this excess cash, we expect to continue balancing share repurchases with investments in our vision and debt repayment. At year-end 2023, we completed our previous share repurchase program, and last month, our board authorized a new $1 billion program, which we expect to complete by the end of this year. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we believe we have manageable annual debt maturity towers.
None of our annual maturities exceed $2 billion through 2038. As of the end of the fourth quarter, our debt to EBITDA ratio was 2.2 times. In this quarter, we repaid $1.1 billion of debt at maturity. Finally, on guidance, we reaffirm our 2024 adjusted diluted EPS guidance of $5-$5.15. This range represents an adjusted diluted EPS growth rate of 1%-4% from a $4.95 base in 2023. I'll now turn it back to Billy for closing remarks.
Thanks, Sal. I'm confident about the future for tobacco harm reduction in the U.S. There's a significant opportunity to shift millions of smokers away from cigarettes to the benefit of adult tobacco consumers, our shareholders, and society. As the leader in the U.S. nicotine industry, we believe we are best positioned to lead the tobacco harm reduction opportunity. We have a demonstrated commitment to responsibility and an extensive understanding of U.S. tobacco consumers. We have a compelling portfolio and pipeline with offerings in each of the major smoke-free categories to meet a wide range of consumers' needs. We have significant cash flows and a flexible balance sheet to support our investments and shareholder returns. With these strengths and the hard work of our talented employees, we remain confident we can achieve our vision. Thank you for your time and your interest in Altria. We'll now take your questions.
We'll start right over here with Bonnie.
Okay, I guess my question has to do with if you could help frame for us how much your investments need to step up over the next few years as you pivot toward everything you just discussed for us today, being, you know, smoke-free and then the non-nicotine. And then in the context of that, Billy, you know, you reiterated your mid-single-digit EPS growth algo through 2028. So trying to understand the key drivers of that, you know, especially considering, you know, this year's growth and last year's EPS growth was below that, which implies that you're going to need stepped up EPS growth in the next few years. Trying to reconcile, you know, with the level of investments as you kind of break into some of these new markets.
Yeah, there are a couple of things I'd like to highlight for you, Bonnie. I think when you think about the EPS goal that we set forth, we've put it on a compounded annual basis. So as you think about the different categories, so whether it be smoke-free with the nicotine pouches or e-vapor or heat-not-burn, they're gonna be at different investment periods depending on the maturity of the market and the progress we make in those. And so as you saw in 2023, the increase in profitability in the nicotine pouch space as we optimize some of those investments there. Certainly, we're gonna be making investments in NJOY as we enter 2024, but not all investments are incremental. As Sal pointed out, we made foundational investments. So an example is Revenue Growth Management. We started there in MST.
We were able to apply those models to the combustible segment, and now we're able to apply them in the nicotine pouch space. So not every there are lots of puts and takes across the P&L. We feel good about the progress we've made against the goals, and it's important to remember that's on a compounded annual basis, and you're gonna be at different investment periods across the categories. Thank you. Ann?
Thank you. Ann Gurkin with Davenport. I appreciate your focus on returning value to your shareholders, but I guess the question I have is, with the cigarette domestic cigarette volume down mid to high single digits, and with aggressive pricing that we've seen over the past year, and with the step up in investment and innovation and expanding internationally, at what point will the cigarette volumes no longer support the current dividend, which is at about a 10% attractive yield?
Yeah, I think when you think about it, we feel confident about the dividend, and that's why we set the goal out so that the investor would have that confidence. I think when you think about the cigarette industry volume, it's important to look at the decomposition we apply, we provide on a quarterly basis, and you saw it here. Looking at the major factors, price elasticity. Other than a minor tweak we made and shared with you at Investor Day, really nothing there that I would point out. You look at secular decline, really nothing underneath from a trend standpoint that I would point out. The two big factors are macroeconomic, and that's really the compounding of the inflation we've seen, impacting our consumer. And then we highlighted for you this illicit, e-vapor, the flavored e-vapor, that's in the marketplace. We're making strides there.
We're starting to see the FDA step up some of their activity in that space. And so, depending on how you expect that to play out over the number of years, we would look to keep any of those consumers in e-vapor, and that's why you've seen us get the distribution of NJOY across the nation. So we would look to keep them there. But if you look at history, when they did ban flavors previously, there was consumers at play, and they went to a number of different categories. I think when you think about the total playout, you saw the cash that's generated, and we have in the past couple of years, $1 billion in excess cash after dividends. Thank you. We'll take one more, and then we'll move to the breakout. Marie?
Thanks, Billy. I think I heard you correctly saying 10 tests in the non-nicotine area this year, which I think presumably implies that you have been investing into this area quite a bit to develop these products and partnerships. So I guess my question is, with the share price where it is today, why is that a better use of capital than buying back your own shares?
Yeah, we actually are in it. We had a share repurchase program in place, and the board agreed, and we have a new one in place for 2024. So we're in the process of buying back shares. We know that top of mind for the investor is dividends, and so that stays top of mind for us. And then with that $1 billion of excess cash, are we able to invest it, whether it be debt maturities, share buybacks, as you mentioned. From a standpoint of we think it's important always to be looking to leverage what we've built into the reduced risk space. We think that's first and foremost in front of us, and then we have a small investment in the non-nicotine space to continue that long-term growth well into the future.
Thank you again for your time, and if anybody wants to join us, we'll be over in the breakout room. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you to Altria for sponsoring tomorrow morning's break and a great presentation today. Thank you so much.
Thanks.