JUUL Labs UK has announced plans to invest in a dedicated field resource for the symbol and independent retail channels. Launched in July last year, JUUL sees convenience as a key channel in which to accelerate its mission of improving UK smokers’ lives. The investment will see the company triple its field force by the end of April to seventy-five.
John Patterson, sales director, JUUL Labs UK says: “For the UK launch, we followed the same process as when we launched in the States in 2015 – get into specialist vape, then key accounts before heavily targeting convenience. That strategy worked incredibly well and JUUL now has over 75% of the vape market in US convenience. We are incredibly excited about our roll out into symbol and convenience as JUUL is a brand that has already resonated with adult smokers in the UK through the vape channel and Sainsburys. There is a real appetite for the brand and we want to ensure current JUUL users and those smokers who want to make the switch from tobacco can easily find JUUL in their local store.”
Heading up the new, upweighted team will be Steve Lintott, Head of Field Sales: “JUUL is a new product in the UK delivering a different experience for adult smokers. While many companies are scaling down or permanently using third party and sales agency staff to call on the independent trade, we wanted to show retailers that we are committed to growing JUUL and the vape category by investing in our own people.”
In addition to engaging retailers, delivering stock, providing POS, insight and category education, the new team will also enforce JUUL’s Challenge 25 policy, which all JUUL stockists must adhere to. Lintott concludes: “At JUUL, we are only interested in targeting adult smokers and Challenge 25 is a prerequisite for any JUUL retailer. Our mission – to improve the lives of the world’s one billion adult smokers – is a big responsibility and we need to ensure our retail partners, big and small, value our mission and act responsibly.”
Comments are closed.