Supreme, the company behind 88vape, has unveiled new plans to act ahead of possible regulations by removing bright colours and certain descriptors from its products.
E-cigarette companies have begun to bunker down since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a potential ban on disposables and changes to vape regulations in the UK.
One establishment ahead of the curb is Supreme – the parent company of 88vape- which was recently targeted by the media due to their £350,000 donation from the Conservative party back in May of this year.
The Manchester-based company is currently one of the biggest UK suppliers, with their single-use vapes available in the likes of Tesco, Morrison’s, and B&M.
Since the news broke of the talks at Westminster of changes to disposables and vapes alike, Supreme has seen a 20 percent loss of their shares.
In response, Supreme is currently undergoing a mass rebrand including changes to their previously bright packages, which is frequently pointed to as one of the reasons behind youth vaping.
Aside from this, consumers of 88vape products can, unfortunately, say goodbye to some of their beloved flavours such as “Peach Dream” and “Bubblegum”, with efforts to take effect in the coming months.
In an announcement, Supreme said it has already begun a ‘series of proactive measures within our vaping division, 88vape, with the intent to mitigate the growing rise of underage vaping.”
The company also said:
“As an industry leader, and to ensure our brands do not create any interest from underage vapers.
“We announce the following pro-active measures over the coming months, which we believe should be adopted across the UK market. We are delighted to announce our proposed changes.
Luc Badain, Sales Director for Supreme Imports Ltd, detailed the five-point plan of action:
- Plain packaging: Packaging across the entire range of 88vape disposables and 10ml liquids are currently being assessed to ensure the use of colour is very limited and the packaging is plain and uniform.
- Supreme will ensure that the shopper’s experience is not impacted, and the use of colour will be present only to ensure the consumer can distinguish one stock item from another.
- Disposables: 88vape bright-coloured disposables will be switched to either plain black, white, or grey hardware with bright colours discontinued at the earliest convenience.
- Flavours: The naming of flavours will be simplified, for example, “Peach Dream” will become “Peach” and “Fruit Crush” will become “Fruit” to avoid any risk of children being interested in the flavour. Any flavours perceived to be appealing to children will be removed entirely from the range.
- Age verification protocols: The company will increase its due diligence to ensure all retailers and e-tailers in its network have robust age verification protocols in place. Supreme will no longer trade with those who cannot comply with this requirement.
- Store location: It is strongly recommended to Supreme’s retailers that vaping products are not located where they can be easily accessed or come into contact with children. The current plan is for this to come as a soft change meaning no changes to barcode or cost prices.
Where products are changing name, Supreme will feature both old flavour and new flavour names on the CDU to help with the short-term merchandising in-store.
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