Simon Carroll, managing director of Hale Vaping, suppliers of a variety of vaping products, including Hale, Elf Bar, and Lost Mary, talks to Maev Martin about their expanding portfolio, market trends, and what the sector needs to survive and thrive
Hale Vaping is probably best known in the market for distributing their eponymous and hugely successful range of Hale liquids.
“Hale Vaping, which was originally called Healthier Choice Ireland, is a fully Irish-owned business,” says Simon.
“The business, which was established in 2013, manufactures its own liquids at a facility in Carlow.
"In 2016, the company name changed from Healthier Choice Ireland to Hale, and we started to sell Hale products into convenience stores and forecourts.”
At the outset, Hale began selling the core Hale liquid range and basic devices.
“As the tastes and needs of consumers changed, we too evolved and started to introduce new ranges, most recently Hale Pro Salts, which is a 10ml liquid that has a wide flavour range similar to that of disposable products,” he says.
“We also have a closed pod system called Hale Pro RX, with the same disposable-inspired flavours, designed to make the transition from disposables as simple and easy as possible.
"There are now 70 Hale, dedicated vape stores nationwide.
"Of these stores, 30 are directly owned, with the remaining 40 comprised of franchise and concession stores.
"These stores exist and are designed to educate smokers on how to give up smoking and what products they should use.”
The vaping category is divided into a number of segments – open systems, such as liquid and devices, closed pod systems, pre-filled pods with compatible devices, disposable vapes, and one of the latest innovations of the vaping industry – big puff disposables.
“In 2020 and 2021, the disposables market exploded,” says Simon.
“We have the main distribution rights to Elf Bar, Lost Mary, Ske Crystal, Gold Bar and, most recently, IVG 2400, a ‘big puff’ disposable product.
"Big puff disposables are rechargeable devices that offer the user a longer lasting, more convenient vape device.
“This is a new segment of the vaping category that has evolved in the past six to 12 months, and the IVG 2400 is the biggest player in that segment.
"We also distribute Elf Bar’s big puff product – AF 5000 – which was introduced to the market in recent weeks.”
Value Options Become Mainstream
However, Simon reports that disposable vapes are still the mainstay of the vaping market.
“This is because many consumers haven’t truly been aware or presented with any of the other vaping systems available,” he says.
“Disposables would have accounted for about 80% of the market until the start of this year and it is now moving down slowly to around the 70% mark as consumers become more price conscious and seek out value.
"There is more value to be had for the consumer from pods, 10ml e-liquids, and rechargeable devices, and the data is showing that these products are steadily growing in popularity and appeal.
“In vape stores, disposables would have only ever accounted for, at most, 35% of sales because that is where consumers get the expert advice and information on the best options for them, which differs from the majority of convenience stores that typically have a lower dwell time.”
According to Simon, this time last year, Elf Bar was Hale Vaping’s best-selling brand.
“Now, Lost Mary is by far our biggest-selling disposable vape brand on the market,” he says.
“Our biggest selling non-disposable vape brand in the 10ml open system segment would be Hale, and in the closed pod system segment, the newly introduced Lost Mary TAPPO.”
NIQ Ireland data shows that the e-cigarettes/vape market value in the multiples (Tesco, SuperValu, EuroSpar, and M&S) and convenience channels (Tesco Express, Centra, Londis, Spar, Mace, Costcutter, Circle K, Maxol, Daybreak/DayToday, XL, Quick Pick, Nearby, Applegreen and independent forecourts) is €280 million per annum.
The NIQ data doesn’t cover independent tobacconists/vape shops, kiosks, or other independent non-convenience stores.
“In terms of units sold, that is 35 million per annum,” says NIQ Ireland’s Ruth Lloyd-Evans.
“The latest 52-week value sales are up by 28% year on year.
"However, in the latest 12 weeks, the value growth is in decline, by 11% year on year, and that trend is worsening in the latest four weeks, with value sales down by 17%.”
To what does Simon attribute these major sales declines?
“There are different factors that play into this trend, and chief among them is the value offer,” he says.
“People are moving to 10ml open systems and closed pod systems, which are at a different price point, so that is having an impact on vape sales, and is slowing the volume of sales in the vaping category.
"Shoppers are seeking out more value and buying into these alternative options - that is probably why we are seeing a dip in sales in some channels, but consumption is still strong.”
Nicotine Pouches Drive Sales
NIQ Ireland data reveals that e-cigarettes or vapes account for approximately 15% of the value sales for the total tobacco category, which includes cigarettes, roll your own, e-cigarettes, and other related tobacco products.
According to Ruth Lloyd-Evans, it is these ‘other’ tobacco related products that are generating considerable growth, driven by nicotine pouches, with Velo and Nordic Spirit being the main brands that are sold in Ireland’s FMCG channels.
“Hale Vaping isn’t currently distributing a nicotine pouch brand, but we are aware of what is happening in this segment, and it is something we are keeping a very close eye on,” says Simon.
“It is clearly a segment that is in growth as we can see from the month on month performance of the Velo and Nordic Spirit brands.”
Sensible Regulation & Licensing
Ireland’s largest vape trade association, Vape Business Ireland, marked World No Tobacco Day on 31 May by calling for the sensible regulation of vaping to protect ‘Ireland’s most effective smoking cessation tool.’
In Simon’s opinion, what constitutes ‘sensible regulation’ of vaping in this country?
“We need a licensing system that is enforced and exclusively available to stores that are familiar with age gated products,” he says.
“That is what constitutes sensible regulation of vaping in this country.
"Over 18s is a great start, but it needs to be backed up and enforced with an effective licensing system being put in place.”
When it comes to the ban on the sale of vaping products to under 18s, which came into effect in December 2023, Simon says that it hasn’t had a major impact on vaping sales.
“It is a massively positive step that we have been calling on for years,” he says.
“Vaping products are for smokers who wish to give up cigarettes, so we see this legislation as a positive step and an example of sensible legislation that we support, as opposed to legislation for legislation’s sake.
“We think the government should make it mandatory for retailers to have a licence to sell these products.
"We believe this licensing system would ensure that retailers who have no prior experience with age gated products, such as cigarettes, lotto, and alcohol, have a significant barrier to entry.
"If vapes are in places outside of mainstream grocery retail and specialist vape stores, it is often unregulated product and there isn’t the full supply chain traceability that there should be.”
“The phone shops, hairdressers, and butchers that have never sold age gated products should not be selling vapes because the message that the vaping industry and the government wants to communicate is that, if you never smoked or vaped, then don’t use these products.
"Also, the existing laws need to be enforced.
"You can introduce laws until the cows come home but if they aren’t enforced, they are pointless.”
Non-Compliant Products & Recycling
Legislation on increasing the sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 is pending and the industry is also facing a potential ban on the sale of disposable vapes.
According to Simon, the sector is already witnessing a lot of non-compliant product entering the market, which is coming mainly from the UK – and a ban on disposable vapes will only serve to intensify this unregulated grey market.
“We are always concerned about banning products – regulation rather than prohibition is always a better way of managing the market as banning disposable vape sales will create a black market,” says Simon.
“It will drive people into the black market to find these products, especially when you have a border with Northern Ireland.
"We understand the biggest concerns relate to waste stemming from disposables.
"It is a problem that needs to be addressed, and we are actively embracing solutions to mitigate this issue as much as possible.
“We are signed up with WEEE Ireland and we pay a contribution to them for every product we bring into the country.
"We continue to partner with them with advertising campaigns and recycling bins, which ensure that these products are disposed of in the proper and correct manner.
“For example, over the past six months, Applegreen have agreed to take the WEEE Ireland boxes and a high number of BWG Foods and Musgrave stores have agreed to do so as well.
"Once we get an agreement on this with the retailer, we notify WEEE Ireland, they install the boxes and regularly collect them when full.
"We believe that this system should continue and be further promoted – as opposed to an outright ban.
“That system should be in as many stores as possible where disposable vapes are sold.
"The introduction of a return system, like the Deposit Return Scheme, to ensure the correct disposal and recycling of these products should also be given serious thought as it has a far higher chance of success than the prohibition of these products.”
A Lifeline For Local Retailers
A Vape Business Ireland report, entitled Supporting local retailers, helping smokers to quit: a blueprint for sensible vaping regulation in Ireland, reveals that vaping products were worth over €126 million to local convenience stores in 2023 – or approximately 2.5% of total local convenience stores turnover.
Vaping sales deliver substantial margins of 40% to 50% to small local retailers, compared to the average margins of around 5% to 6% on other common everyday items such as lottery tickets and scratch cards.
How can the government protect this lucrative revenue stream for convenience stores nationwide?
“I think the government doesn’t realise the impact that vaping sales have on local retailers,” says Simon.
“In many ways, vaping sales have kept the doors open for some convenience stores.
"I don’t think the government is thinking about retailers at all, and when they hopefully do, they need to concentrate on the shops selling vapes that shouldn’t be selling them - this would bring the product back into the legitimate market where there is a nice margin for retailers.”
Simon also believes that convenience and forecourt retailers need to talk to their local TDS about the impact that outright bans on disposable vapes could have on their stores.
“Retailers need to talk to their local TDs about the importance of vaping to their businesses and the government should be speaking to the industry about the unintended consequences that outright bans could have, not just on the retail trade, but also on the government’s own goal, which is to further reduce cigarette smoking in this country,” he says.
“Vaping is the most successful smoking cessation tool there is, so it needs to be given a chance.
"I believe the government is being given the wrong information, as vaping is immeasurably less harmful than smoking.
"Those are the facts, so any proposed bans simply do not make sense.”
Extreme Prohibitions Can Lead To Return To Smoking
Vape Business Ireland’s report – Supporting local retailers, helping smokers to quit: a blueprint for sensible vaping regulation in Ireland – claims that extreme prohibitions have led to increased smoking rates and an explosion in the black market in Denmark, Estonia and California, and ‘risks shuttering small local businesses here in Ireland should the Government introduce similar bans’.
Estonia rowed back its 2019 ban on flavoured vapes after just a year, as it drove a black-market explosion estimated to have accounted for 85% of the overall market (NNA Smoke Free Estonia).
A 2020 study surveying Canada, England and the US found that 28% of vapers would look to find a new way to get banned flavours, posing a likely rise in illicit market activity (Graveley et al, 2022).
Closer to home, a recent 2024 survey found that almost half of vapers would illegally source flavoured vapes online from abroad if they were banned in Ireland (Red C/Respect Vapers).
In 2020, Denmark introduced a ban on flavoured vapes. However, a 2023 report from the Danish Health Authority points to this ban having led to an increase in the percentage of young people smoking and a decrease in the percentage of vapers who were quitting smoking (Danish Health authority, 2023).
Does Simon believe that the government hasn’t been properly briefed on the impact that extreme prohibitions on vaping have had in other countries?
“I’d like to think that they have and are aware of these things, but I think they aren’t getting the correct information,” he says.
“If we are looking to achieve a Smoke Free Ireland, then vaping is the best tool to allow the government to achieve that.
"They need to look at what has happened in other countries to see what does and doesn’t work. Vaping isn’t even close to smoking, so it mustn’t be equated with it.”
What’s Driving Growth
Simon points out that the vaping category is still evolving and growing.
“Vaping is a category that moves very quickly, faster than anything else in the FMCG sector, and next year we will see brands in the market that we aren’t even aware of now,” he says.
“We weren’t very familiar with pouches 36 months ago, disposables weren’t that popular four years ago, and there wasn’t great awareness of them, so whatever is coming next is undoubtedly already in the pipeline.
"The vaping landscape will change radically over the next 18 months.
"Some products that are on the shelves now won’t be there at that point.”
That is why Simon believes it is crucial that retailers move with the changes and give the category the space it requires in store.
“The stores that give vaping the one to two metres of space that it requires in store have done considerably better in terms of sales volume than those that don’t,” he says.
“Those stores have become destinations for consumers as they know they have the right range and the new brands.
"Giving this category the space and range in-store that the consumer wants is a key growth driver for the category and for stores.”
Hale Vaping have placed over 1,000 units in 1,000 stores over the past 12 months.
“About 50 of those stores have two metres of space dedicated to vaping, so there is a lot of scope to drive sales even further.
"Of course, some retailers don’t have the space, but where the retailer does have the space they should definitely consider giving it that allocation, as it will drive sales volume and turnover.”
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