Juul In The UK
It is announced that Juul will launch in 250 UK vape shops by the end of this week.
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by Dave Cross
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Juul, thanks to the unintentional advertising of those campaigning against it, has grown to be the market leader in its sector, crushing all of the tobacco company brands in the United States. Constant social media posts about Juul has raised its brand profile, and ill-advised advertising campaigns have seriously backfired by making the product appear to be cooler than Juul could have legally managed.
Now the pod device, resembling a memory stick, is set to land in the United Kingdom. What reception will the company get? For a start, they will find the going easier due to the mature response of the UK government to tobacco harm reduction. But this could be a detriment to them as they will not receive the same level of attention from anti-vape campaigners and the pod market has already become to be established.
Juul has set aside almost £23 million to fund its initiatives in the States and reinforce its drive across Europe. It comes from the company’s drive to secure $1.25 billion in investment funding.
Grant Winterton is Juul’s newly appointed president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is reported as saying that Juul will only target adults in its marketing and that the brand ambassadors (part-recruited through an advert on POTV) would all be over 28-yrs old.
The 250 brick and mortar vape stores will be selling the starter kit for £29.99. The kit includes the device, a USB charger and four TPD-compliant flavour pods. Juul decided to enter the UK first as Winterton says we have “the world’s most supportive government”.
The one hiccup in the works has been President Trump’s move to create a trade war with China. As the pods are currently made there, Juul has had its bottom line hit by the imposition of import duties. Consequently, Juul is looking at taking the manufacture of its products in-house, in the United States. This in turn creates a threat for the company, as the future for Brexit and trade agreements with the USA remains unclear.
Many will be wishing Juul well as it represents independence in a tobacco company dominated sector. Others will remain concerned that Juul has had, and continues to have, discussions with the major tobacco brands. POTV hopes that many current smokers find Juul to be an answer they had hitherto been unable to find.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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