Blog - Tobacco Reporter

HCD Releases R&D of Fibre Coil

The international atomizing manufacturer HCD (Huachengda) released new research and development of Fibre Coil technology, reports PR Newswire.

The Fibre Coil is a new generation of technology developed in view of international flavor bans, aiming to solve the problems of the taste of electronic cigarette products and the degree of reduction of the traditional tobacco flavor, according to a press release.

The two most popular carburetor materials in the market are ceramic coil and cotton core. Chen Ping, CEO and chief engineer of HCD, said the current ceramic coils are tough and easy to assemble, but due to technical limitations, their fine and small pore structure leads to unstable liquid discharge, as juices with higher viscosity, such as tobacco flavor, cannot flow smoothly.

“Considering the different characteristics of tobacco flavor and fruit flavor juice, HCD has come up with an optimized tobacco flavor through its evaporator,” said Chen. “Ideally, different flavors of juice would require different evaporators, just as one key only opens one lock.”

To achieve this goal, HCD has invested heavily in research and development to develop a new type of Fibre Coil, which it filed a patent for in 2021. The Fibre Coil is made by breaking the fibers into a pulp and then “sticking together” with an adhesive to ensure the consistency of the material while improving uniformity, stability and vaporization.

Currently, the company has CottonX, a larger coil suitable for disposable e-cigarettes, and Fibre Coil, a smaller, more compact coil still under development for pod system electronic nicotine-delivery system products.

April 6, 2023

Vuse Market Share Grows While Juul Drops

R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. has continued to expand Vuse’s market share gap with Juul, according to the latest Nielsen convenience store report.

Vuse’s market share rose from 41.5 percent in the previous report to 42.2 percent compared with Juul declining to 26.1 percent.

The latest Nielsen analysis covers the four-week period ending March 25, according to media reports.

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.

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.

No. 3 Njoy was unchanged at 2.7 percent while Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs were unchanged at 1.4 percent.

On March 6, Altria Group Inc. delivered another shake-up to the tobacco industry by confirming it would pay $2.75 billion in cash to take full ownership of Njoy.

Altria cleared the way for the Njoy purchase by exiting its minority stake in No. 2 e-cigarette company Juul while acquiring global licensing rights.

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 23.9 percent decline in the latest report.

By comparison, Reynolds’ Vuse was up 31.1 percent in the latest report while Njoy was down 10.9 percent, blu eCigs were down 37.4 percent and Japan Tobacco’s Logic was up 5.2 percent.

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

April 6, 2023

TIMB Supports Shisha Production

The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has licensed Cavendish Lloyd Tobacco to contract and support manufacture of shisha in Zimbabwe, reports New Zimbabwe.

“We have licensed Cavendish Lloyd Tobacco to contract and support shisha production in Zimbabwe,” the TIMB said. “Shisha is different from the known traditional flue-cured Virginia tobacco. Unlike cigarettes, this type of tobacco is consumed using a device called a hookah or waterpipe.

“A hookah or waterpipe is a single-[stemmed] or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking the tobacco. An individual pulls from a pipe, and then the smoke is passed through a water basin, often glass-based, before inhalation. This is the reason why shisha is referred to by others as pipe tobacco.”

“It is important to note that shisha is not burley tobacco, neither is it a cigar wrapper,” the TIMB stated. “The cured leaf has to have low nicotine content to protect the smoker from inhaling huge amounts of nicotine since shisha tobacco is about constant smoke inhalation in huge quantities.

“The cured leaf is preferred light and thin textured necessitated by low basal fertilizer applications.”

Shisha has potential for cultivation across all regions in Zimbabwe since the crop has similar agronomic practices and the same curing facilities as Virginia tobacco.

April 5, 2023

UKVIA Marks 100th Member

The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has welcomed its 100th member, Haypp Group.

The Swedish company is a market leader in the tobacco-free nicotine pouch e-commerce sector and has now expanded into the vape market by adding this new segment to the range of products on its Haypp.com website last year, according to a UKVIA press release.

“As a responsible market leader in the online nicotine space, we want to fully participate with the industry, and joining the UKVIA is an obvious and logical decision,” said Markus Lindblad, Haypp’s head of external affairs.

“We take extra responsibility as a market leader to support the rights of smokers to access better nicotine alternatives and to stand up for them in public debates and be their voice in front of regulators, the media and other stakeholders.

“We joined the British-Swedish Chamber of Commerce when we started operating in the U.K., and now that we have included vape products to our platform, our UKVIA membership will allow us to better contribute to our industry and the wider society that it serves.”

“This is a milestone for the organization, and I am delighted to welcome a company as impressive as Haypp to the UKVIA as our 100th member,” said UKVIA Director General John Dunne.

“This sends an important message to regulators that the UKVIA is a serious organization, made up of serious players who want to act in a responsible way to further technological advances within the industry. This is also our first member to have a suite of reduced-risk products to help adult smokers make the switch from smoking.”

April 5, 2023

Greenbutts to be Featured in Docuseries

Greenbutts, a leader in biodegradable filtration technology, will be featured in the documentary series Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid, according to PR Newswire. The series produces educational documentaries on a range of topics, including business and technology—with a focus on highlighting innovation around the world.

The documentary highlights Greenbutts by raising awareness on the most littered single-use plastic in the world—cigarette filters, according to a press release. In a national spotlight, Greenbutts aims to educate the public about the commercial readiness of its technology to replace trillions of these littered ocean-bound plastics every year with a plant-based and certified biodegradable alternative.

By harnessing the properties of plant fibers, Greenbutts allows global manufacturing partners to sustainably transition away from cellulose acetate—the synthetic plastic used in filters. Without compromising on filtration performance or customer expectations, the innovation can be implemented for scalable adoption and measurable impact, according to the company.

“We are excited to have Greenbutts featured in this latest Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid short documentary and to have the opportunity to illustrate not only the massive problem of single-use plastic litter in our environment but also the steps Greenbutts has taken to help solve this issue with regard to the cigarette industry.”

April 5, 2023

22nd Century Enters Agreement with Cookies

22nd Century Group announced a new three-year exclusive license and distribution agreement with Cookies, a global hemp/cannabis company. The brand was founded in 2010 by CEO, rapper and entrepreneur Berner and Bay Area breeder and cultivator Jai.

“This transformational strategic license, manufacturing and distribution agreement with Cookies establishes the foundation of an innovative new CDMO plus distribution business model for 22nd Century at a time when mass market channels urgently need to find new, high-margin, high-velocity products to meet the rapidly growing consumer demand for CBD products,” said James A. Mish, CEO of 22nd Century. “Our complete, vertically integrated capabilities represent the first and only industry option providing Cookies’ category-leading CBD brand with a single-source, national solution across its entire family of products.”

“We are incredibly excited to expand our partnership beyond GVB with the 22nd Century Group. They have undoubtedly put together one of the most impressive teams in the space, and we look forward to expanding the national distribution of Cookies non-THC products together,” said Parker Berling, president of Cookies.

The exclusive license with 22nd Century covers all Cookies branded non-Delta-9 THC, hemp-derived cannabinoid consumer packaged goods, including sourcing of all ingredients and APIs; white-label manufacturing of vapes and other CBD products; and category management through retail distribution.

GVB Biopharma, a 22nd Century company, has manufactured various Cookies products for the past three years and under this new agreement will manufacture Cookies’ market-leading products, expected to account for more than half of Cookies’ non-Delta-9 cannabinoid sales.

The integrated go-to-market sales and distribution components of the agreement will leverage 22nd Century’s veteran consumer packaged goods sales team, which plans to distribute Cookies products in up to 18 markets targeted for the rollout of the company’s innovative VLN products during 2023.

The CPG sales team will target a market of approximately 60,000 retail stores consisting of independent retail, discount tobacco outlets and vape shops in nonrecreational states serviced by its network of top regional distributors and chain discount tobacco outlets. Products will also be available on the Cookies e-commerce website.

“Cookies products are a natural fit to the same points of sale as our FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] MRTP [modified-risk tobacco product]-authorized VLN products. The combination of these two offerings will enhance our sales team’s product portfolio with a larger suite of small-footprint, high-velocity, high-margin CBD products, with Cookies’ internationally recognized products serving as a cornerstone brand as we build out this innovative hemp/cannabis CDMO+D platform,” said John Miller, president of tobacco products at 22nd Century.

April 5, 2023

PMI Releases Integrated Report

Philip Morris International released its fourth annual Integrated Report. Informed by a formal sustainability materiality assessment, the report aims to provide an objective description of the company’s business model, governance and management, strategy and performance.

“Despite its many tests, 2022 was a remarkable year that brought our employees closer and saw us make measurable strides toward achieving our purpose,” said Jacek Olczak, CEO of PMI. “We are progressing toward our 2025 aspiration of becoming a majority smoke-free company and ultimately phase out cigarettes. While a transformation of this magnitude and complexity cannot be achieved overnight, we are committed to making it happen as fast as possible. It is through constructive engagement that we will accelerate the pace of meaningful and impactful change and complete our transformation for good.”

Building on its ESG framework, PMI developed eight strategies targeting the company’s most pressing areas of impact. To accompany these eight strategies, PMI established 11 goals, which form the basis of its 2025 Roadmap, and 19 key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress via its Sustainability Index. Each KPI is also aligned with one of two drivers: product sustainability (11 KPIs) or operational sustainability (8 KPIs).

“Nonfinancial information is increasingly being used by external stakeholders to assess and compare a company’s performance to others, including the financial community in their analyses and investment decisions. It is key to the integrity of PMI’s reporting that the information and data that we publicly disclose accurately reflect our company’s progress, following clear calculation methods,” explained Emmanuel Babeau, chief financial officer of PMI.

April 5, 2023

Greentank Gets Millions for Vape Technology

Vape hardware manufacturer Greentank Technologies closed a Series B financing round worth $16.5 million with an unspecified “strategic investor group” that includes Canadian cannabis producer Organigram Holdings.

The funding will be used to launch new vape technology, which Greentank CEO Dustin Koffler said in a statement, “moves away from the traditional ceramic and wicked coil systems commonly used in most vaporizer products today.”

The technology “is expected to launch later this year and serve multiple markets beyond cannabis,” Toronto-based Greentank said in a news release, according to MJ Biz Daily.

The $16.5 million funding round includes a $14.5 million equity investment from the investment group plus $2 million in debt financing from existing shareholders.

The terms of the debt financing were not disclosed.

In a statement, Greentank said its new vape technology “will expand its reach beyond cannabis to serve the broader vape category, including nicotine, e-liquids, pharmaceuticals and more.”

April 4, 2023

Palau Makes Sale and Use of Vapes Illegal

The island nation of Palau has outlawed e-cigarettes and other vaping products after President Surangel Whipps signed a law for “a total ban on the import, advertising, sale and use of e-cigarettes,” reports the NZ Herald.

The law—RPPL 11-27—has expanded the country’s Tobacco Control Act to include e-cigarettes and will come into effect 60 days after being enacted.

Beginning May 29, businesses and individuals can be prosecuted if found with e-cigarette products.

Individuals who are caught violating the law could face a $1,000 fine, and businesses or persons importing, distributing and/or selling the product could face a $20,000 fine.

The initial bill was introduced in the Palau National Congress in July last year.

April 4, 2023

Georgia Bill Would Criminalize Vaping

A Georgia, USA, bill, Senate Bill 47, would criminalize the use of vapor products in public spaces, reports Filter.

If the bill is passed, it would ban vaping in all public spaces in which combustible cigarettes are banned under the Georgia 2005 Smoke Free Air Act. Those caught breaking the law would be fined between $100 and $500. The bill would also prosecute public vaping violations as misdemeanors—in Georgia, this means incarceration of up to a year and the inability to obtain certain jobs.

Under the legislation, the definition of smoking would be revised to “such term includes the use of an electronic smoking device which creates an aerosol or vapor or the use of any oral smoking device for the purpose of circumventing the prohibition of smoking.”

April 4, 2023