NEXT GENERATION PRODUCTS
Our aim is to increasingly transition smokers to our Next Generation Product (NGP) portfolio; products that are significantly less harmful than combustible cigarettes.
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OVERVIEW
We are currently witnessing the biggest consumer shift in our history, with millions of smokers around the world choosing to switch to less harmful NGP.
As a result we are increasingly focusing our attention on developing and expanding our NGP portfolio, providing smokers with alternative products in different categories.
NGP offer smokers alternatives to combustible tobacco and are broadly divided into three main categories: vapour, heated tobacco and oral nicotine.
Our work in this area prioritises vapour, the largest and most developed NGP category opportunity.
We want smokers to switch to alternative products with lower health risks. We encourage them to make that change by providing an outstanding vaping experience, underpinned by leading-edge science and high-quality innovation.
To keep up with NGP developments, see the news section on this page or follow us on Twitter @ImperialBrands
VAPOUR
Vapour products are battery-powered devices that heat e-liquids to create a vapour which is inhaled by the user. E-liquids are produced in varying nicotine strengths, with nicotine-free variants also available.
These products are fundamentally different from all tobacco-based products and devices; they do not contain tobacco leaf.
A growing number of regulators and public health bodies have concluded that vapour products are less harmful alternatives to smoking and therefore have a role to play in reducing tobacco-related disease. In the UK, for example, Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians have concluded that vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking.
We are represented in the vaping category by the pioneering brand blu, which is managed by our Fontem Ventures business and celebrates its ten-year anniversary in 2019.
blu has strong established positions in the USA and UK, the world’s two largest vapour markets, and is available in a growing number of other countries including France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Spain.
Vapour products fall into two broad sub-categories: closed or open systems. Closed systems include the fast-growing pod format; simple-to-use devices such as myblu which feature a pre-filled pod of e-liquid to combine power with portability. Open systems enable the user to refill the e-liquid.
LATEST NGP NEWS
SCIENCE AND INNOVATION
NGP technology is evolving fast and we substantially enhanced our scientific and technical capabilities in 2017 with the acquisition of the innovation business Nerudia.
Nerudia is focused on developing a pipeline of vaping and other NGP innovations that will accelerate smoker conversion rates and stop smokers reverting to tobacco.
The investment built on our acquisition of the global patent portfolio for vapour technologies from the original inventor of the e-cigarette Hon Lik in 2013.
Mr Hon was welcomed to our business as the head of our Research and Development team in China – a position he still holds to this day.
We are committed to making a significant contribution to the growing body of research around vaping and other products. This includes assessing their safety and demonstrating the potential to reduce the risk of diseases associated with smoking when adult smokers switch to our NGP.
We set high standards to meet the ever-evolving needs of consumers and regulators, and to enable the development of new and potentially safer products.
HEATED TOBACCO
We have added to our growing repertoire of NGP products with our heated tobacco device Pulze, which was launched in a city pilot in Fukuoka, Japan, in May 2019.
For us, this creates greater optionality in parts of the world where vaping is not permitted or where smokers prefer heated tobacco.
As the name implies, these products heat a portion or rod of tobacco, releasing nicotine and other tobacco emissions at substantially lower levels than cigarettes.
ORAL NICOTINE PRODUCTS
Through our Skruf brand, we have a strong position in snus, an oral tobacco product with a long history of use in Scandinavia.
We are making good early progress in expanding our presence in the next generation of oral nicotine products, growing sales of tobacco-free and other variants in Scandinavia and beyond.
