22nd Century Partners With Eagle Rock

22nd Century Group will start placing its VLN reduced-nicotine cigarettes in thousands of stores across Colorado with Eagle Rock Distributing Co. With more than 90 years of history, Eagle Rock Distributing Co. is a leading beverage distributor of premium alcoholic beverages servicing license retailers across Georgia and Colorado.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Eagle Rock as we open VLN sales across Colorado. In addition to our existing retail partnerships from our Chicago pilot, we now have access to nearly 7,000 prospective new locations through Eagle Rock’s network, to include both on-premise and off-premise locations,” said John J. Miller, president of 22nd Century’s tobacco business, in a statement.

“We are excited to partner with 22nd Century Group to market VLN across the state of Colorado,” said Michael Economos, president of Eagle Rock Distributing Co. “We want Colorado to be the first state to have a combustible cigarette brand that meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration[‘s]

and Biden administration’s proposed nicotine cap broadly available to adult smokers across the state to truly help them smoke less. We have had similar ‘nonalcoholic’ adult beverage offerings for decades, and we are way overdue for adult cigarette smokers to have an analogous option.”

22nd Century also partners with Circle K, one of the largest convenience chains in North America, and Smoker Friendly, a leading pioneer in the cigarette and tobacco store category with more than 800 independently owned and operated retail stores.