The controversy over vaping among young people moved into the City spotlight today when a London-listed supplier took action to cut the appeal of the habit to underage users.
Supreme – which sells 6.3 million bottles of vaping liquid every month – unveiled detailed plans to tackle the problem.
It will simplify the names of flavours in it 88vape range, changing “peach dream” to “peach” and “sweet strawberry” to “strawberry”, to reduce shelf appeal to younger people. Some flavours will be removed entirely.
Plain packaging will be brought in for its own-brand products and it will discontinue all brightly coloured disposable vapes.
Supreme also pledged to work only with retailers and online sellers running “robust age verification”. It will “strongly recommend” shops do not display vapes near confectionary.
Its biggest customer, the B&M chain, will bring in collection bins for disposable vapes.
Sandy Chadha, CEO, said: “We believe flavoured vapes are a critical part of many ex-smokers 'quitting journey' as they seek to replace that tobacco taste for something more palatable, we are also desperate to ensure that those flavours do not spark any interest in younger people.”
Alluring names for liquids and bright colours for vaping devices have drawn large numbers of younger teenagers into a habit that started out as a way of helping tobacco smokers drop cigarettes.
The Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, launched a government consultation on vapes last week. He hit out at the way vapes "are being marketed to children with bubblegum flavours, making them look like sweets".
Supreme's move today came against this backdrop of increased political scrutiny.
Chadha added: "We are fully supportive of any further legislation in the sector and believe it is the right thing to do to begin to transition our business by removing or changing anything from within our product set that could be deemed compromising.
"As government guidance evolves we may seek to re-assess this approach."
Supreme's shares rose 2p to 109p.
