British American Tobacco continues its commitment to transform tobacco with glo launch in Italy

Italy becomes BAT’s first market in the world to offer consumers its innovative range of both vapour and tobacco heating products.

Italy has become British American Tobacco’s first market to offer consumers products from both its innovative vapour (Vype) and tobacco heating products (glo) ranges following the launch of glo in Turin, Italy this week.

glo is BAT’s flagship tobacco heating product brand. It’s a device which heats – rather than burns – tobacco. The vapour formed during the heating contains around 90% to 95% less toxicants than a standard cigarette* and thus has the potential to be less risky than smoking. Italy is BAT’s seventh glo market – joining Japan, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, Russia and Romania.

The glo launch in Turin is supported by the opening of the first ‘glo Studio’ in Italy – an innovative space in Turin’s city centre, where consumers will be able to learn more about glo to help them make an informed choice when looking to purchase this potentially less risky alternative to cigarettes. Turin is the first Italian city to go live with glo, with plans to expand further in the country later on in the year. This week’s expansion follows the launch of BAT’s leading vapour range – Vype – in Italy in December 2016 and means Italian smokers now have even more choice when it comes to looking for potentially reduced risk alternatives to smoking.

This milestone in Italy reinforces BAT’s strategy of offering consumers choice – recognising that consumer tastes in the tobacco and nicotine space are fragmenting and evolving. British American Tobacco is committed to transforming tobacco through the development and sale of a portfolio of potentially reduced risk products, like Vype and glo. Today, BAT has an unrivalled range of exciting and innovative products across the potentially reduced risk categories, including industry-leading products in vapour; tobacco heating products; oral tobacco; tobacco-free nicotine pouches; and moist snuff.

Commenting on the launch in Italy, Tadeu Marroco, BAT’s Regional Director for Europe and North Africa, said: “As a leading FMCG company, we know that consumer tastes are frequently changing. We are absolutely committed to transforming tobacco with a range of inspiring products and that’s why we are continuously innovating to offer consumers different choices when looking for reduced risk alternatives to smoking. We’re delighted that Italy marks our first dual market when it comes to our range of NGPs, offering Italian smokers even greater choice, and we hope that this trend will continue as we plan further rollouts of our current and future products.”

BAT has invested more than US$2.5 billion on its innovative range of Next Generation Products (NGPs), since 2012 and the commitment does not stop there. The company has ambitions to generate over £1 billion revenue from NGPs by the end of 2018 and increase this figure to over £5 billion by 2022. BAT is currently in 16 markets worldwide with its NGPs and aims to double this by the end of 2018.

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