There’s more to the city of Neuchâtel, the French-speaking capital of the Swiss canton Neuchâtel, than meets the eye.
Photos by the author
It is a medieval old town where you will find Château de Neuchâtel, a castle begun in the 12th century, The Cube, Phillip Morris International’s (PMI) Research and Development Hub, which oozes with science, crystal-clear lakes, and a lot of cheese and chocolates, my favorite being Läderach. It is also the cradle of the world’s watch-making industry.
On the banks of Lac de Neuchâtel
But The Cube, so far, is the place I would like to go back to for several reasons. First, to probably go fishing at Lac de Neuchâtel that lines the façade of the modern glass structure. Second, to see the developments on the more than $9 billion investment by PMI on tobacco harm-reduction efforts.
PMI’s focus has been tobacco-harm reduction since it declared its commitment to move away from cigarettes.
“We are putting all our horses into this race,” said Tommaso Di Giovanni, vice president for international communications at PMI, adding that “harm reduction starts with hunger for innovation. We took the challenge and pioneered the changes.”
Gizelle Baker, PMI’s vice president for global scientific engagement, said: “Nicotine is not the primary cause of smoking-related diseases.”
Going smoke-free
Stefano Volpetti, president, Smoke-Free Products Category and chief consumer officer, projected that by 2025, 50 percent of the company’s net revenues will be from smoke-free products.
There is an increasing adoption of tobacco harm reduction in the European Union, Russia, the UK, Norway, the US, Greece, New Zealand, Uruguay, Switzerland, and Sweden. And this has resulted in some 12.7 million adult smokers around the world who have stopped smoking and switched to IQOS.
Dave Gomez, PMFTC’s (the local affiliate of PMI) director of communications, attested to this by saying: “Millions worldwide have already switched to our smoke-free products and given up cigarettes completely, and this is just the beginning. A smoke-free future is within our grasp.”
The traditional raclette or fondue would be the main stars in most of our meals in Switzerland. After all, when you say Swiss, you say cheese, watches, or chocolates, and offshore accounts too for some.
PMI’s significant presence in Switzerland can be traced to the city of Lausanne, which is home to its global Operations Center (OC) and biggest research facility, “The Cube,” in Neuchâtel.
Novel technologies
PMI is contributing significantly to the innovation landscape in Switzerland. In 2019, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that PMI was the third largest Swiss applicant with 424 patent applications, ranking 45th out of all patent applicants worldwide. The heating technology and other components for IQOS were developed and assessed in Neuchâtel, with the contribution of around 60 startups and SMEs from across Switzerland. PMI actively invests in technologies and businesses that support its vision of a smoke-free future through Lausanne-based PM Equity Partner (PMEP), the corporate venture capital fund of PMI.
A week’s worth of cheese
With our PMFTC hosts, Dave, Didet Danguilan, and Seano Obmerga, we visited Geneva for one week, and crossed over to the French border city of Annecy, the ice cream capital of France for a day tour.
Our visit to The Cube in Neuchâtel was the highlight of this trip.
We also drove to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn, the iconic logo of Swiss chocolate brand Toblerone.
The traditional raclette or fondue would be the main stars in most of our meals in Switzerland. After all, when you say Swiss, you say cheese, watches, or chocolates, and offshore accounts too for some.
We visited Montreux, where Freddie Mercury lived out the last years of his life and where his band Queen recorded a total of seven albums. We had a blast getting “Freddie-fied” at the Queen Studio as “Bohemian Rhapsody” kept playing over and over our heads.
We saw how the world-famous Gruyère cheese is made with huge wheels and wheels of it rolling before our very eyes at the La Maison du Gruyère Village!
Chocolate factory
Cailler, another famous Swiss chocolaterie, also made it to our list of must-visit places. The factory visit was fun and informative and gave us a sense of déjà vu as part of the tour was a COD Department Store-like presentation, which was very interactive.
Our last day in Geneva saw us visiting the United Nations headquarters, the World Health Organization, the International Red Cross institution, Parc de l’Ariana, the Broken Chair, Geneva Lake, the Flower Clock, Old Town, Reformation Wall, and the City Hall with the help of our local tour guides and Filipino drivers hired straight from Italy by Bella Vita Trips ([email protected]).
So many things to do and places to visit! But for the one week we were in Switzerland, it was worth all the cheeses (and chocolates) that we ate.