The UK Vaping Industry Association has reached a new milestone by welcoming its 100th member, with the addition of Haypp Group to the country’s leading vape trade body.
The Swedish company is a market leader in the tobacco-free nicotine pouch e-commerce sector and has now expanded into the vape market by adding this new segment to the range of products on its Haypp.com and Vapeglobe.co.uk website last year.
Haypp joined the UKVIA to fully contribute to the industry’s development and be part of an organisation which encourage best practice and fights for fair and proportionate regulation.
Head of External Affairs Markus Lindblad said: “As a responsible market leader in the online nicotine space we want to fully participate with the industry and joining the UKVIA is an obvious and logical decision.
“We take extra responsibility as a market leader to support the rights of smokers to access better nicotine alternatives and to stand up for them in public debates and be their voice in front of regulators, the media and other stakeholders.
“We joined the British-Swedish Chamber of Commerce when we started operating in the UK and now that we have included vape products to our platform, our UKVIA membership will allow us to better contribute to our industry and the wider society that it serves.”
He said he was impressed by the UKVIA’s track record in supporting the industry, lobbying for regulatory change to ensure that even more adult smokers are encouraged to quit and resisting calls for increased taxes and bans on vape flavours and entry level vaping devices.
UKVIA Director General John Dunne said: “This is a milestone for the organisation and I am delighted to welcome a company as impressive as Haypp to the UKVIA as our one hundredth member.
“This sends an important message to regulators that the UKVIA is a serious organisation, made up of serious players who want to act in a responsible way to further technological advances within the industry. This is also our first member to have a suite of reduced risk products to help adult smokers make the switch from smoking.”
Haypp Group joins the UKVIA as the industry is increasingly under attack in the media and as politicians and regulators are under pressure to ban flavours and single use starter vape devices amid concerns over youth uptake and the impact on the environment.
Lindblad said both issues were important matters but the knee-jerk rejection to ban flavours and devices was not the answer.
He added: “We have consumer data from more than one million nicotine consumers in Europe and the US which shows that there is no difference between the flavour preferences of young people and adults.
“We have pushed nationally and on the European level for regulations to protect children and when it comes to the environment, we have a robust ESG strategy with clear goals and stakeholder dialogues on a daily basis.
“Those who argue about the environmental problems facing the industry cannot forget that while they are arguing for the environment, every year seven million people die from smoking worldwide and these factors have to be balanced.”
He said innovation will be the key to tackling the environmental issues and said it was critical that the entire industry continues to invest heavily in R&D to deliver the very best products to help smokers quit and keep them off cigarettes.
ENDS