Asian Trader was chosen to attend the recent, highly glamorous launch of British American Tobacco’s brand new Vuse Ultra vapour device and pods at Aqua Kyoto on Regent Street, in London’s West End, where we managed to grab some time with BAT’s Commercial Director, Susanna De Iesu, and Dr Sally Bell, Head of Product at the company’s Southampton research laboratories.
It was clear from the presentation beforehand that the Vuse Ultra concept is taking vaping into new territory, the device being loaded with features to tailor it to individual tastes, and the MyVuse app to track all sorts of taste and performance parameters – a really sophisticated piece of kit to enable the discerning vaper get the very most out of the experience, with it’s bang-up-to-date closed-system hi-tech.
And don’t despair if your current Vuse device is not this new space-age one.
“The Ultra pods are back-compatible with the older devices,” explained Dr Sally. “You can put the older, previous-version pods into the new Vuse Ultra device. That means if retailers are still stocking some of the older pods, or if you are a Vuse consumer and have old pods, you can use them with a new device.
But it’s with the ultra pod and the ultra device together that you get to experience the unique new features of the Ultra device such as the auto tune and puff tracking with the flavours as well, she explained.
As to price and flavours?
“The recommended price will be £30 and £9 for the Ultra pods,” said Susanna, with 200 puffs in each 2ml pod.
“We are quite obsessed about the quality of our flavours,” she continued. “There's a lot of tests that we do on compliance, a lot of studies on quality, so no sucralose added, no vitamin E acetate. And for Vuse Ultra we're using the best materials and the best flavours – we have decided to have some continuity flavours, more traditional ones like tobacco and mint, but also some that are designed to offer quite different experiences, like Dragon Fruit Pomegranate or Mango Calamansi.
“What is important to underline is that Vuse only carries adult type of flavours. We don't go towards sweet drinks and those types of flavours. For retailers, most of them will be exposed to four flavours, one tobacco and one mint, Cherry Ice and Dragon Fruit Pomegranate. However, there's eight flavours currently available should the retailer want to have more.”
Vuse Ultra is rolling out now at selected convenience outlets – around 2000 in London and a few other cities, ahead of an imminent wider distribution and promotional campaign.
“Because Vuse Ultra is something that doesn't really exist in the vape market, it requires a more premium, connected, more personalized type of offer,” explained Susanna. “So the launch will be done at pace, starting with selected areas and outlets, and then expanding. We have all sorts of tools to help retailers with the device and pods, and at the moment we are distributing via our Trade Representatives, with the pods available via our B2B online platform.”