As more consumers in the UK switch to e-cigarette products, traditional tobacco manufacturers are sounding the alarm that their market is lessening rapidly. Since e-cigs entered the UK market, traditional tobacco has been seeing much competition from vaping products. Already, the vaping market is worth in the billions of dollars. Last year, the nation’s e-cig use had tripled since 2010, and has shown no signs of stopping yet. An estimated 2.6 million U.K. citizens are currently using ecigs, and approximately 1.1 million of them have completely quit smoking.
The transition from tobacco to e-cigs
UK health workers are sending out strong warning signals about the use of traditional tobacco. They are taking a stance by spreading the word that tobacco smoking can cause serious illnesses to the body but e-cigs carry a lesser health risk to consumers. Tobacco can cause damage to one’s brain, thus blocking memory cells from functioning properly. They can also cause cancer, high blood pressure, kidney failures and possible other problems that can result in the body shutting down. The transition from traditional tobacco to e-cig is a welcome one by UK health workers and so far, many veteran tobacco smokers in the kingdom are transitioning to electronic cigarette products to avoid the risk of doing harm to their bodies by continuing the practice of smoking tobacco.
In addition, tobacco regulators are clamping down on the product by introducing new regulations into the industry and thus driving up the price of the item. Furthermore, taxes are playing an important role in hiking up prices of tobacco products as well. Therefore, to avoid paying higher prices to puff, consumers are turning to the cheaper e-cigs for enjoyment purposes.
E-cigarette performance on the market
E-cigarette products have been making a boom on the UK market and as a result, some traditional tobacco companies are now taking part in its sales to the public. Large tobacco companies such as Atrial in the US and others are now turning to e-cigs to increase their profits as well as to identify with the boom-taking place in the e-cig industry.
So far, the e-cig market in the UK is making positive strides toward coming on the same level as traditional tobacco. While traditional tobacco has been around much longer than e-cig, its industry is worth in the trillions of dollars. E-cig products have been around for less than 10 years and already have become a $1.5 billion industry business worldwide. In the UK alone, some 2.6 million persons have already switched from tobacco to e-cigarette. Although tobacco is by far a larger market than e-cig, nevertheless, the e-cig industry is making much progress towards leveling the field.
Large companies from the tobacco industry are taking over smaller e-cig companies through acquisition. This makes the e-cigarette industry to be seen as a progressive industry. Many persons today believe that the e-cig industry in the UK will continue climbing towards becoming a trillion dollar business alongside the tobacco industry. In fact, some experts in the tobacco business as well as the e-cig industry are touting that e-cig products will outdo tobacco someday in the future.
As the e-cig market grows in the UK, legislators in the country are trying to settle the matter whether they should regulate the product just like what they are presently doing to tobacco. Putting some serious regulations on e-cig will make the product much less competitive against tobacco.
As for taxes, there is no doubt as to the amount of billions of dollars traditional tobacco are putting into the hands of the government in the UK. Presently, the government is noting the benefits of e-cigs in building their revenues just like what tobacco is now doing.
The e-cig market will continue to grow in the UK and put pressure on the tobacco industry. At this time, it is a wait and sees matter as to how far the e-cig industry will reach in the next few years in comparison to the tobacco industry.