Cigarette makers find that people are still willing to spend even as other industries struggle with a pullback in the third quarter while consumers watched banks collapse and markets teeter, the Associated Press reported.
Executives of Philip Morris International Inc., the biggest cigarette maker not owned by a government, and Reynolds American Inc., the second-biggest tobacco company in the U.S., say their results demonstrate how they can defy a downturn.
Philip Morris International's profit rose 20 percent in the third quarter as sales climbed and it benefited from favorable foreign exchange rates. It sells Marlboros, L& M, Chesterfield and Bond Street brands outside the U.S.
Reynolds Chief Executive Susan Ivey says the company's performance "speaks to the resilience of the tobacco business, even in tough economic times."