VPZ To Open More New Stores
VPZ, the UK’s largest vaping retailer, has announced its plans to expand to 20 more locations by the end of the year
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by Dave Cross
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New VPZ stores have already been opened in Hexham, Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby and Newquay since the start of the year.
Falkirk and seven major shopping centre sites are currently under the acquisition process and further growth is planned in the North East of England and Yorkshire before the end of 2023.
VPZ is pushing ahead with growth at a time when the UK is moving towards ambitions to be Smoke-Free by 2030.
England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Witty, has recently acknowledged that vaping can be a “route out of smoking” for adult smokers. Whitty said existing smokers should still switch to vapes because they were healthier than cigarettes if “they can’t just completely stop" and that “vaping has an important role as a public health tool to help smokers who are addicted … to come off smoking.”
Since its establishment in 2012, Edinburgh-based VPZ has helped over 700k smokers to quit smoking in the UK.
Doug Mutter, Director of VPZ, said: “As the UK’s leading vaping specialist, we are spearheading the fight against the nation’s number one preventable cause of death – smoking.
“Our plans to open twenty new stores reflect our ambition to engage with current smokers throughout the country and help them make their first steps on their quit journey.
“The country continues to lose momentum in reducing smoking rates and if we want to meet our goal of a smoke-free UK by 2030 we should not lose focus on our aim and use the current positive progress that vaping has achieved in helping adult smokers quit.
“We have a huge opportunity to be bold and progressive in transforming the health of the nation and it's vital that we are progressive in meeting our ambitions to transform the health of the nation.”
Researchers at King’s College London found vaping to be a more effective treatment than nicotine replacement therapy for stopping smoking.
A further report from the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group backs vaping as an effective treatment for tobacco dependency and recommends that it should be included and encouraged in all treatment pathways. The report also found that the long-term impact of vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than smoking cigarettes.
VPZ is also campaigning for the UK Government to introduce tighter controls and licensing for selling vaping products.
Doug Mutter added: “At VPZ we are firmly focused on helping adult smokers quit and have helped over 700k people quit smoking since we were established in 2012.
“Our strategy has always been to bring expert knowledge and engage with smokers to educate them on the health and financial benefits of switching to vaping.
“At the moment VPZ fully recognises that there is an issue where imported, many unregulated, disposable vaping products are readily available from local convenience stores, supermarkets and several other general retailers with no age verification control or regulation in many of these.
“This problem centres around access, an area that VPZ has publicly campaigned on with UK and devolved policymakers.
“We are at a pivotal moment for the vaping industry, which will define its future role in the smoke-free goal of 2030.
“We are urging the UK Government to act now and follow best practices from countries like New Zealand, where flavoured products can only be sold from specialist licensed vaping stores. In addition, there is a challenge 25 policy in place and consultation is aimed towards adult smokers and vapers.”
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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