The influence of tobacco brands on the E-Cig market

UK company Go Smoke Free, has launched an infographic that sheds light on the affiliations between Big Tobacco and e-cigarette brands, determining which tobacco companies own which vaping products’ brands.

Diane Caruana

November 21, 2017

80% of e-cigarette brands remain independently owned.

Go Smoke Free, an online e-cigarette retailer has investigated the ownership of 73 leading vaping companies to determine how many of these are affiliated with Big Tobacco companies and to what extent. The infographic revealed that the major tobacco companies own subsidiary companies, which in turn own a number of vaping brands. However 80% of e-cigarette brands remain independently owned.

In a communication with The Vaping Post, Go Smoke Free shared the following :

“VIP, Vapestick, 10 Motives and Vype: Owned by subsidiary company Nicoventures Holdings, which is in turn owned by British American Tobacco
Socialites: Owned by Stada UK Holdings, which is owned by Stada Arzneimittel AG
V2Cigs/Vapour2 UK: Owned by VMR Products, which is owned by Huabao International Holdings
Blu: Owned by Fontem Ventures, which is owned by Imperial Brands
Nicocigs: Owned directly by Philip Morris

Vaping Parents

We found five vaping brands that were directly owned by a tobacco-free parent company: Totally Wicked, The Electronic Cigarette, Vape Emporium, ECig Wizard and TCcigs”

Go Smoke Free added that with Imperial Brands Plc acquisition of U.K. based e-liquids manufacturer Nerudia, it will be interesting to see whether Big Tobacco will keep trying to increase their hold on vaping brands. This is generally expected to be the case since the public is becoming more health conscious and smoking rates keep declining.

Is extending their business to safer alternatives, Big Tobacco attempt to survive?

The major big tobacco companies have also been making bold claims about wanting to contribute to a smoke free world, claims which are naturally considered by many as nothing but clever marketing strategies.

Infact not only have the major big tobacco companies been investing in the safer alternatives, but they have also been making bold claims about wanting to contribute to a smoke free world, claims which are naturally considered by many as nothing but clever marketing strategies.

Last September, Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI), announced that it will allocate $1 billion to setting up a foundation that will fight smoking, and then dispense a further $80 million yearly towards the project for 12 years. This is probably the boldest statement of the several released recently by PMI, who are clearly trying to convince that they are serious about combatting smoking.

Last year PMI also made headlines when Andre Calantzopoulos, the company’s CEO said that he would like “to work with governments towards the “phase-out” of conventional cigarettes”. Additionally Peter Nixon, the Managing Director for UK and Ireland had said, “We want to move towards a smoke-free future and a lot of that is incentivising people to move across from cigarettes to something that is less harmful.”