Category: Retail

  • Reynold’s Vuse Holds Steady With 41% Market Share

    Reynold’s Vuse Holds Steady With 41% Market Share

    Credit: Jet City Image

    According to the latest Nielsen convenience store report, R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co.’s Vuse still holds a comfortable lead in e-cigarette market share for the four weeks ending Oct. 7.

    The company saw its lead increase slightly from 41.7 percent to 41.8 percent, while Juul’s share decreased from 24.7 percent to 24.4 percent, according to media reports.

    This comes after Juul Labs Inc.’s regulatory concessions earlier this year caused their share to drop from 74.6 percent.

    Meanwhile, Altria Group Inc.’s complete acquisition of NJOY on June 1 has yet to translate into any considerable increase in market share, as the companies only dipped about 0.1 percent from 2.6 percent to 2.5 percent.

    Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs, an affiliate of Imperial Brands Plc, rose from 1.2 percent to 1.3 percent.

    Reynolds last week filed a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) complaint charging multiple manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of several popular disposable vaping devices with unfair importation.

    It is one of several recent actions Reynolds has made to remove its competitor’s vaping products from store shelves.

    Altria Group’s e-cigarette subsidiary NJOY, LLC has filed lawsuits against 34 foreign and domestic manufacturers, distributors and online retailers of illicit disposable vaping products.

  • Biometric Age Verification Gaining Ground in Canada

    Biometric Age Verification Gaining Ground in Canada

    Biometric measures for age verification are gaining ground in Canada and Washington state, as retailers and regulators try to prevent youth from accessing vapes and other restricted products.

    Imperial Tobacco Canada (ITCAN), which produces most of Canada’s major cigarette brands as well as the VUSE brand of vapes, has announced the expansion of a pilot for a biometric pass to access its VUSE retail stores, according to media reports.

    According to a release, customers who sign up for the VUSE Pass through a one-time age verification process will be able to verify their age at VUSE outlets with a biometric palm scan.

    The nationwide rollout follows a successful pilot program in Toronto.

    “We say we are committed to preventing youth vaping, and we mean it,” says Frank Silva, the president and CEO of ITCAN. “A root cause of the problem is that kids unfortunately have access to vaping products. We’ve taken an important first step by making sure that we do more to control access to our own stores.”

    Silva says there is a lack of government leadership around ensuring proper age verification procedures for restricted products. “Governments have all the tools necessary to stop retailers from selling to minors. They are simply not being enforced.”

    Lawmakers in Washington State are deciding whether or not regulators will be able to add fingerprint scans for biometric age verification to their ID toolkit. The State Liquor and Cannabis Board has been considering a pilot project for biometric age verification. But, as the Center Square reports, doubts and questions about equity, security and oversight continue to arise.

  • Grocer’s Lobby Wants ‘Nuanced Debate’ on Vapes

    Grocer’s Lobby Wants ‘Nuanced Debate’ on Vapes

    The Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) trade association has written to Scotland’s public health minister Jenni Minto MSP, following the Programme for Government announcement, which said restrictions on vaping in Scotland will be considered.

    The SGF outlined a number of measures which it believes can reduce vaping among children, while also ensuring adult smokers looking to quit have access to alternative forms of nicotine, according to media reports.

    It said packaging and naming of vape brands should be changed to make them less appealing to children, but said it opposes restrictions on flavor.

    The SGF said flavor is shown to be the key factor which helps people switch from smoking to vaping – an alternative it argues is less harmful.

  • Vaporesso Licensed to Sell Open Systems in UAE

    Vaporesso Licensed to Sell Open Systems in UAE

    The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT) has licensed Vaporesso to sell in the country, the company announced in a press release.

    After nearly a year of strategic planning and application, Vaporesso received MoIAT certification for over 10 models of its products, including the Luxe XR, XROS 3 Mini, XROS 2, XROS 3, XROS Mini, XROS Nano, Zero S, Luxe X, Luxe QS, OSMALL 2, and GEN PT 60.

    “As the first open-system vaping device brand licensed by the MoIAT, we will continue our commitment to providing market-leading vaping products with unmatched quality and functionality,” said Jimmy Hu, vice president of Vaporesso.

    The first batch of MoIAT-certified products with compliant packaging has now arrived in the UAE and gone through taxation. This allows distributors, retailers and consumers to legally sell, stock and buy Vaporesso products with assured quality. Meanwhile, all future Vaporesso products will undergo MoIAT registration, ensuring quality and innovation for partners and consumers.

    The UAE government has enforced strict regulations to govern all nicotine-containing components used in e-cigarettes, refill packages, e-liquids and tobacco products sold in the country. The regulations demand that manufacturers and companies of vaping devices must meet Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology standards, which set out strict quality and safety requirements for e-cigarettes and related products before placing them on the market.

  • VPZ Expected to Open 15 More Stores by End of 2023

    VPZ Expected to Open 15 More Stores by End of 2023

    Doug Mutter
    Doug Mutter/Photo: VPZ

    VPZ, the largest vaping retailer in the UK, announced it would be increasing its footprint to over 160 stores by opening 15 new stores across the UK by the end of 2023.

    The growth comes amidst VPZ’s launch of its new vape recycling service in partnership with WasteCare across all its stores in response to the rising environmental concerns over disposable vapes.

    “We are delighted to be continuing our brand expansion and mission of supporting adult smokers to quit whilst bringing our own innovative recycling services to tackle the negative environmental impact of disposable vaping,” said Doug Mutter, director at VPZ.

    VPZ is also calling on both the UK Government to introduce tighter controls and licensing for selling vaping products both in physical and online retail environments.

    To date, Edinburgh-based VPZ has already helped over 700k smokers in the UK quit since it was established in 2012, according to the retailer.

    In March VPZ said it planned to have opened 20 additional stores by the end of the year as its expansion plans continue.

  • Vaping Retailers Cautious on Outlook of Category

    Vaping Retailers Cautious on Outlook of Category

    Credit: Jet City Image

    Goldman Sachs Managing Director Bonnie Herzog highlighted some key concerns and risks identified by retailers in the survey, along with some key positives for the nicotine industry.

    A recent survey shows convenience-store retailers, distributors and others who sell vaping and other tobacco products are cautious on the outlook for the category.

    This finding comes from Goldman Sachs’ second-quarter 2023 Nicotine Nuggets survey, based on feedback from the New York-based company’s retailer and wholesaler contacts representing about 60,000 locations across the United States, according to CSP Daily.

    Overall, 43 percent of respondents are more negative than the previous quarter in their outlook for the total tobacco/nicotine category in the last few months, citing economic constraints on the consumer, pressure on discretionary incomes, regulations, and tobacco list price increases driving consumers to trade down to cheaper products or exit the category.

    Key concerns and risks that survey respondents identified included price elasticity and downtrading, Goldman Sachs Managing Director Bonnie Herzog highlighted in a report on the survey.

    Recent price increases are forcing consumers to buy less, buy cheaper products or exit the category, she said. One respondent said the current pricing environment is not sustainable for the core tobacco consumer, and that pricing is starting to cut into demand above and beyond the industry 3-5 percent volume declines. In July, Altria took its third cigarette list price increase of 2023.

    As manufacture list price increases reduce consumer options for affordable tobacco products, smokeless nicotine and e-cigarettes are benefitting, survey respondents said.

    Respondents also expressed concern about the proliferation of black-market activity in flavored e-cigarettes as the FDA struggles to remove non-compliant products from the market, Herzog said. Continued premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) delays and marketing denial orders from the FDA on flavored products is benefiting the illicit market, respondents said. Significant traffic is moving to disposable flavored e-cigarettes.

    Key positives from the report included growing sales of non-combustible alternatives and cigarettes continuing to drive store traffic, despite volume declines.

    Several retailers pointed out accelerating trends for flavored disposable vapes and alternative oral nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes.

    And while cigarettes are increasing in price, the segment remains an important category and traffic driver for retailers, as cigarettes make up more than a quarter of total inside sales, Herzog said.

  • Retailers Want FDA List of Legal Vaping Products

    Retailers Want FDA List of Legal Vaping Products

    Retail associations have asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to provide them with list of e-cigarettes and vape products that are legal to market, reports NACS.

    In October 2021, NACS and five other retail associations sent a letter to the FDA asking the agency to publish the names of vapor products for which it has taken action. In their letters to FDA, the associations expressed the critical nature of this list for their retail members who need to know which products are legal to sell and which are not.

    The FDA formally responded in January 2022, stating that it understands the retail groups’ request for specific names of products and that the agency is working on updating the list with final actions taken on individual products, including those that received marketing denial orders (MDOs).

    “Given the large number of products involved, sharing this information requires additional time and resources so that the Agency does not disclose confidential commercial information (CCI) about products that are not yet marketed,” stated the agency.

    In a more recent letter to the FDA, the associations said they “can appreciate the immense task of reviewing millions of applications. However, there remains widespread confusion in the marketplace as to which products can remain on shelves and which need to be removed.”

    “While Director Zeller encouraged retailers to contact manufacturers with any questions about products in their inventory, this is not an adequate or fair solution. It places the burden on retailers to verify the marketing status of ENDS and vape products with the manufacturers. Many of our members are small operators who do not have the resources or bandwidth to contact the manufacturers,” wrote the associations.

     “Moreover, manufacturers providing a list does not guarantee accuracy or give the assurance that a verified list from the agency would give. These retailers stand to face enforcement if they are out of compliance with the law and the only way to ensure they can comply is if they have a verified list from the agency.”

    Renewed support for a list of legal products come after the FDA issued warning letters to 30 retailers, including one distributor, for illegally selling unauthorized Puff Bar and Hyde disposable vaping products. The FDA typically sends warning letters to manufacturers, however, now retailers are facing stiffer scrutiny.

    FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said cracking down on disposable products most used by youth is a priority for the regulatory agency. “We’re committed to holding all players in the supply chain – not just manufacturers but also retailers and distributors – accountable to the law,” he said.

  • Vuse and Juul Both See Slight Dip in Market Share

    Vuse and Juul Both See Slight Dip in Market Share

    A slight dip in the market-share lead of R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co.’s Vuse vaping system was announced in the latest Nielsen convenience store report released last week.

    Vuse’s market share declined from 42.2 percent to 41.8 percent, compared with Juul declining from 26.1 percent to 26 percent.

    The latest Nielsen analysis covers the four-week period ending April 22.

    According to Barclays, Nielsen largely covers the big chains. For the smaller chains, the group extrapolates trends, which is why trend changes don’t appear immediately in Nielsen. Local vape shops are not included in the data.

    Consumer demand for tobacco products has ebbed and flowed over the past 12 months, mostly from the impact of inflation and recent upticks in traditional cigarette prices, according to media reports.

    No. 3 NJoy was unchanged at 2.7 percent, while Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs was unchanged at 1.4 percent.

    Juul’s four-week dollar sales in the latest report have dropped from a 50.2 percent increase in the Aug. 10, 2019, report to a 22.6 percent decline in the latest report.

    By comparison, Reynolds’ Vuse was up 23.1 percent in the latest report, while NJoy was down 8.1 percent, blu eCigs down 35.1 percent and Japan Tobacco’s Logic up 4.9 percent.

    As recently as May 2019, Juul held a 74.6 percent U.S. e-cig market share.

    In March of this year, Altria Group announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Njoy Holdings for approximately $2.75 billion in cash. Altria said it had multiple sources of funding for the deal, including cash from a $2.7 billion agreement with Philip Morris International last year for IQOS. 

    A day before the Njoy announcement, Altria Group announced it had exchanged its entire investment in Juul Labs for a non-exclusive, irrevocable global license to certain of Juul’s heated tobacco intellectual property.

  • Reynolds Warns Vape Shops to Stop Selling Flavored Vapes

    Reynolds Warns Vape Shops to Stop Selling Flavored Vapes

    Credit: Lovely Day 12

    A STAT news report claims R.J. Reynolds has sent letters to several small vape shops threatening to sue if the shops do not stop selling flavored vaping products.

    The STAT news story claims to have obtained two letters, both of which were sent in March, giving the vape shops just a few days to confirm they will no longer sell flavored tobacco products.

    Failure to comply could result in “legal action, and the costs, attorneys’ fees, and adverse publicity to which a lawsuit would subject [the vape shop],” the letters warn, according to STAT.

    The letters, which were sent to stores in New Jersey and Alabama, also warn that the shops are violating local laws regulating the sale of flavored tobacco.

    The New Jersey letter also copies the county prosecutor where the vape shop is located, in an apparent attempt to notify the local authorities of the violation.

    he letters are the latest example — and a marked escalation — of Reynolds’ campaign to force a crackdown on illegal vaping products.

    In the article, Clive Bates, a tobacco harm reduction advocate, criticized Reynolds.

    “I do not think Reynolds should be hounding vape shops for selling life-saving products to their regular customers,” Bates wrote in an email to STAT. “It should not be picking on little guys, but pressing federal bureaucracies to do their job, and do it better.”

    In February, RAI Services Company, a Reynolds company, submitted a citizen petition asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to adopt a new enforcement policy directed at flavored “illegally marketed disposable electronic nicotine delivery system” (ENDS) products.

    The petition was filed on Feb. 6 and posted by the FDA to Regulations.gov for public comment on Feb. 8.

  • Numerous Vape Shops Close After Taiwan Vape Ban

    Numerous Vape Shops Close After Taiwan Vape Ban

    Credit: Yao Photograph

    Since the vaping ban was enacted in Taiwan on March 22, 15 out of 44 vape shops in Kaohsiung City have closed, according to the city’s Department of Health.

    Among the city’s 44 stores, 10 have completely shut down their businesses while 15 have closed their doors, according to media reports. The rest of the stores have switched to selling other products, as the store owners said that the fines are too high to risk, according to Taiwan News.

    In addition to intensive inspections of physical stores, the health department is monitoring online sales and social media advertisements. So far, one violator who made e-cigarette advertisements will be interviewed and fined.

    The amended regulations to Taiwan’s Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act ban e-cigarettes entirely, raise the smoking age to 20 and increase penalties for violators.

    According to the new regulations, manufacturing or importing e-cigarettes is punishable by a fine of up to NT$50 million ($1.65 million). Advertising agencies, media, and advertisers are subject to a maximum fine of NT$2 million if they are caught advertising unsanctioned tobacco products.

    Selling or displaying unsanctioned tobacco products is punishable by a maximum fine of NT$1 million. The fine for supplying novel tobacco products and their paraphernalia is NT$10,000 to NT$250,000, and vaping is punishable by a fine between NT$2,000 and NT$10,000.