CANADA
Imperial Tobacco officially unveiled its Vype vaping product to the Canadian market in late May 2018, saying the company is moving to help transition smokers away from combustible cigarettes to potentially less harmful products. Vype is a fillable e-cigarette that produces an inhalable aerosol that comes in a number of flavors and is available with various levels of nicotine, including one with no nicotine.
Jorge Araya, president and c.e.o. of Imperial Tobacco Canada, said the aim of Vype and the company’s heat-not-burn cigarette Glo, launched last year, is to help Health Canada reach its goal of having less than 5% of the population smoking traditional cigarettes by 2035.
According to Araya, about 17% of Canadian adults — or about 4.5 million — currently smoke combustible cigarettes, but over the last four to five years, almost two million Canadians have become “vapers,” and many of them are either current or former smokers. He said Imperial has half of Canada’s market share for cigarettes, and the company’s goal is to dominate the vaping market as well.
“Our journey, which we call ‘transforming tobacco,’ places more control and choice in the hands of consumers. Transforming tobacco is our acknowledgment that society and the industry is changing and it is our commitment to lead this change through empowering consumer choice,” he said.