Reynolds has another go at heat-not-burn cigarette

Reynolds American Inc. is hoping to capitalize on the growing appetite in the US for alternatives to traditional cigarettes by launching a cigarette that heats rather than burns tobacco, according to a story by Michael Felberbaum for Associated Press.

Revo has a carbon tip that is lit and that heats the tobacco using technology first unveiled by Reynolds with Premier cigarettes and later taken up in Eclipse cigarettes, which are still in limited distribution in the US and which, according Felberbaum, comprise one of the top-selling brands in the cafeteria at Reynolds’ headquarters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Revo is described by Reynolds as a ‘repositioning’ of Eclipse.

Even though Eclipse left no lingering odor and didn’t produce ash, they had only minimal success, partly because they tasted different to traditional cigarettes and were more difficult to use.

“Heat-not-burn technology was 20 years ahead of when consumers were ready for it,” J. Brice O’Brien, head of consumer marketing, was quoted as saying.

“It needed the mass presence of vapor products to open up an experience-base that smokers understood.

“The smoker could only compare heat-not-burn to a combustible and it lost every time. That’s no longer the case.”