Last week, 22nd Century Group appointed Katherine Rouse-Bailey as vice president of marketing as the company steps up efforts to expand awareness and sales of its reduced-nicotine VLN cigarette brand and Pinnacle products. Rouse-Bailey brings two decades of consumer health and brand-building experience from Johnson & Johnson, Galderma and Nestlé Health Science, and will lead initiatives aimed at increasing adult smoker trial, strengthening retail sell-through, and supporting the company’s broader commercialization strategy.
Category: Business & Finance
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Altria Schedules Financial Webcast for July 30
Altria Group will host a live audio webcast on July 30 at 9 a.m. ET to discuss its 2026 second-quarter and first-half financial results, which will be released at approximately 7 a.m. ET that day. The webcast will feature Chief Executive Officer Sal Mancuso and Chief Financial Officer Heather Newman, who will review the company’s operating and financial performance and participate in a question-and-answer session with investors and the media. The event will be available in listen-only mode, with pre-registration required, and an archived replay will be posted on Altria’s investor relations website.
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VB Distribution Expands Ahead of UK’s Vape Duty Change
VB Distribution announced the opening of a new 100,000-square-foot business park in Lancashire, England, expanding its national warehousing network to 500,000 square feet and strengthening its customs bonded storage capacity ahead of the U.K.’s Vaping Products Duty, which takes effect on Oct. 1. The company said the HMRC-approved bonded warehouse will allow duty-suspended storage, helping retailers better manage inventory and cash flow as the new tax is implemented.
Company CEO Natalia Gosciniak said the investment positions VB Distribution to provide compliant stock and supply continuity, alleviating cost pressures faced by smaller distributors without bonded infrastructure. VB Distribution, which supplies more than 50,000 retail shelf placements across the U.K. and reports an annual turnover of £500 million, said the facility is fully operational and could create up to 1,000 jobs as part of its broader expansion strategy.
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PMI to Post Financials July 22
Philip Morris International announced it will host a live webcast on July 22 at 9 a.m. ET to discuss its second quarter and first half 2026 financial results, which are scheduled to be released earlier that morning at approximately 7 a.m. ET. The presentation will be led by Group Chief Financial Officer Emmanuel Babeau and incoming Group CFO Massimo Andolina and will include a review of the company’s financial performance, followed by a question-and-answer session with the investment community. A replay, presentation slides, and transcript will be made available after the event.
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Riot Offers to Pull Flavored Products to Improve UK’s New Vape Regs
British e-liquid manufacturer Riot Labs endorsed tougher restrictions on youth access to vaping products while urging the UK government to rethink proposed packaging and display rules, arguing that treating vapes like cigarettes could reinforce the misconception that the products carry similar health risks, saying the government is dressing “the cure like the disease.”
As an alternative, the company said it would support limiting general retailers to selling only plain-packaged, tobacco-flavored vapes kept behind closed cabinets, while voluntarily confining its own flavored products to licensed, adult-only specialist vape shops once the retail licensing framework under the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 is implemented. Riot said the approach would reduce youth access while preserving adult smokers’ access to flavored products and specialist advice, contending that restricting distribution — not simply standardizing packaging — would better balance public health objectives with tobacco harm reduction.
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WSJ Optimistic with Tobacco Stocks
Reporting for The Wall Street Journal’s business section, Carol Ryan wrote that tobacco companies with growing smoke-free product portfolios are increasingly attracting investors, helping to narrow the stigma traditionally associated with cigarette stocks.
“The taboo against owning cigarette stocks hasn’t gone away, but new gray areas are emerging,” she wrote. “Companies that make a big share of their sales from smoke-free products like vapes appear to be rejoining polite society, and are getting a boost to their stock-market valuations as a result.”
Ryan said shares of British American Tobacco have roughly doubled over the past two years, outperforming many major technology stocks, as investors respond to a more favorable U.S. regulatory environment under the Trump administration and recent FDA guidance allowing new vapes and nicotine pouches to remain on the market while their premarket applications are under review. She said the policy could help legal manufacturers compete more effectively against the illicit vape market, which Jefferies Financial Group estimates accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. vape sales.
Ryan said the shift toward smoke-free products is also improving tobacco companies’ market valuations. Philip Morris International, which generated 41% of 2025 sales from non-combustible products, trades at a significant valuation premium to peers, while BAT —whose smoke-free portfolio represented nearly 20% of revenue last year — is targeting 50% by 2035. She said BAT has gained U.S. market share with its Velo Plus nicotine pouches and could benefit from the FDA’s new approach as it launches updated Vuse products. Ryan concluded that, as traditional cigarette volumes continue to decline and other consumer staples sectors struggle with weak growth, a broader group of investors is beginning to reconsider tobacco stocks, particularly companies demonstrating growth in reduced-risk nicotine products.
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Oettinger Davidoff Posts 2.5% Sales Growth
Oettinger Davidoff reported 2025 sales of CHF 545.3 million ($680 million), up 2.5% in real terms, driven by growth in its premium cigar portfolio. The Davidoff brand posted a 2.4% sales increase, while Zino grew 16.1%, supported by strong performance in the company’s Partner Markets & Duty Free EMEAA region and continued momentum in the U.S. market. Handmade premium cigar production totaled 36.6 million cigars, down 4.9% from 2024, as the company adjusted output to reflect changing market conditions.
The company said it continued investing in manufacturing, opening a new blending center in the Dominican Republic and expanding its Honduras facility with additional box-making capacity and a new fermentation complex. Oettinger Davidoff also opened seven new retail stores and renovated four locations during 2025, with plans to open nine more boutiques in 2026. The company said the investments support its five-year Aspire727 strategy, which focuses on brand growth, operational excellence, and expanding its position in the global premium cigar market.
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22nd Century Reportedly Losing Key Customer
According to the Winston-Salem Journal, 22nd Century Group received a 180-day termination notice from Smoker Friendly International, ending their exclusive private-label manufacturing agreement effective Jan. 1, 2027. The contract, signed in January 2025 and originally set to run for five years, covers the production of cigarettes and filtered cigars for the retailer’s network of more than 800 independently owned stores.
The loss of the contract would represent a significant setback for 22nd Century, which derives nearly all of its revenue from manufacturing private-label traditional cigarettes and filtered cigars despite being known for its FDA-authorized very-low-nicotine (VLN) cigarettes. According to the WSJ, in the first quarter, the company’s traditional cigarette sales fell to $2.85 million from $5.01 million a year earlier, while filtered cigar sales declined to $873,000 from $1.1 million. The company employs about 40 people at its Mocksville, North Carolina, manufacturing facility.
The contract termination comes as 22nd Century continues a financial restructuring that began in 2023, including reverse stock splits to maintain Nasdaq listing compliance and workforce reductions. While its VLN cigarettes remain the only combustible cigarettes authorized by the FDA as a modified-risk tobacco product, the company has struggled to generate meaningful sales despite expanded distribution, and the current FDA has shown less emphasis on very-low-nicotine cigarettes while authorizing additional flavored e-cigarette products.
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Ex-LEO Breaking into Texas Pouch Market
Patriot Pouch announced the launch of its U.S.-made, tobacco-free nicotine pouches for retail and online sales, positioning the brand as a domestically manufactured alternative in the oral nicotine category. The company currently offers 6 mg nicotine pouches in four flavors, with 9 mg and 12 mg strengths planned, and said the products are available through its website and select gas stations and vape shops in the Weatherford, Texas, area. Patriot Pouch said wholesale pricing is $5 per can with a suggested retail price of $7.49, with current production capacity at 1,000 to 1,500 units per month.
The company said its nicotine pouches are manufactured entirely in the United States and are marketed as tobacco-free products. Patriot Pouch was founded by Alex Duncan, a retired law enforcement officer and former U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, and is partnering with Diamond Hill Grassroots Media LLC for marketing and outreach.
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Payment Providers Warn Retailers About Illicit Vapes
Major U.S. payment providers and fuel retailers are warning merchants against selling unauthorized vaping products as enforcement against the illicit market intensifies. According to Reuters, Fiserv subsidiary CardConnect, along with BP, Marathon Petroleum, and Valero, advised partners over the weekend that selling unauthorized e-cigarettes could result in significant fines, loss of payment processing services, or other compliance actions. The warnings follow pressure from a coalition of U.S. state and local law enforcement officials and come after Mastercard cautioned it would investigate transactions involving illegal vape sales.