Anyone who has ever attempted a self-help plan knows that transformations are hard. That holds true for tobacco companies, too.

They would like to think that they can build a sustainable future selling vapes and snus (oral smokeless tobacco) from the embers of their traditional cigarette business. But — as the UK’s ban on disposable vapes suggests — the growth potential of alternative nicotine delivery products appears limited.

To be fair, the UK’s new policy will not directly hit traditional tobacco manufacturers such as British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands. It targets disposable vapes, a £1.3bn market that is dominated by colourful and bubble-gum flavoured Chinese imports. This has grown extraordinarily fast, accounting for 31 per cent of all e-cigarettes in 2023, up from just 2 per cent in 2021, according to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

https://www.ft.com/content/041dfe85-93f5-4170-9644-6f630ab32f84