In South Korea, the vaping market is currently dominated by local tobacco giant KT&G and global firm Philip Morris (PMI), but BAT hopes that this is about to change. “BAT has been investing heavily in the research and development sector to introduce an alternative and innovative new product,” said BAT Korea CEO Kim Eui-Sung said in a statement. “Through launching Glo Sens, we will be able to show our firm commitment to lead the tobacco industry’s transformation.”
BAT’s device is priced at 50,000 won ($41) and its pods cost 4,500 won per pack, which contains one liquid pod and three cigarette pods. Glo Sens can be purchased at four Glo flagship stores in Seoul and Busan, at all convenience stores, or online on the tobacco company’s website.
The company is pointing out that the new device is more convenient, as it does not require users to change the cigarette sticks each time like in existing heat-not-burn tobacco devices. Additionally, with a single charge the device can last all day.
The Success of “Heat not Burn” devices
The market share of HNB devices, including PMI’s’ iQOS and South Korean KT&G Corp.’s lil, has shot up to 11.8% in two years.
Meanwhile, in the span of two years, the market share of HNB devices, including PMI’s’ iQOS and South Korean KT&G Corp.’s lil, has shot up to 11.8% in South Korea.
The product has been introduced in South Korea only two years ago, and yet according to data released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance last December, 288 million packs of “cigarettes” were sold in November, of which 35 million packs, were HnB refills. This equated to an 11.3%, up from 7.3% the prior year.
HnB tax revenue totals 10.7 trillion
A December report had also shown that the cumulative sales of HnB refills had reached 295.5 million packs, with a 9.3 percent share in the tobacco market. Tax revenue from the manufacture and sale of all tobacco products in Korea, had totaled 10.7 trillion won ($9.5 billion), up 2.6% from the previous year and a whopping 63.9% from the same period in 2014 before the sale tax went up sharply.
Further data released by the government has indicated that HNB sales have stood at 92 million packs in the first quarter of this year, up a whopping 34% from a year earlier. This equates to an increase of 11.8 % as of end-March, from 2.2% two years ago.
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