Esse is a brand of

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

s, currently owned and manufactured by the

Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corporation KT&G Corporation (), originally Korea Tobacco & Ginseng, also branded as Korea Tomorrow & Global, is the leading tobacco company in South Korea with annual sales over US$4 billion. KT&G was originally a government-owned monopoly but was privatise ...

. The brand is specifically targeted towards women due to being slim and superslim, and because of their lower tar and nicotine content.

History

Esse was introduced in 1996 by the Korea Tomorrow & Global Corporation and expanded internationally outside of South Korea, including in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and Eastern Europe, where the brand was introduced in 2003. Currently, the Esse brand is available in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and some countries in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, but not in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. From 2001–July 2016, KT&G reported that total export sales of ESSE produced in South Korea reached 202 billion and those made overseas were 43 million. These sales make ESSE one of the best-selling superslims cigarette brands and control more than a third of the world's superslims cigarette market. The success of selling this brand abroad makes KT&G the fifth-largest cigarette company in the world. In addition, KT&G has also succeeded in establishing branch factories in Iran in 2009 and in Russia in 2010.

References

Cigarette brands {{SouthKorea-company-stub