TAAT Global Alternatives (CSE:TAAT / FRA:2TP / OTC:TOBAF) has confirmed that its first batch of Beyond Tobacco cigarettes have now arrived in the UK as the company prizes open the UK market for alternative cigarettes. Beyond Tobacco is already being widely sold in the US as a non-nicotine alternative for smokers who want to kick the habit.
More than 43,000 packs of TAAT Original, Smooth, and Menthol cigarettes have arrived in the United Kingdom and will be dispatched to the London warehouse of Green Global Earth following a standard customs inspection. This shipment is part of more than CAD $1,200,000 worth of TAAT purchase orders for distribution in the United Kingdom and Ireland, markets in which GGE is the exclusive TAAT distributor.
TAAT Beyond Tobacco authorised for UK distribution
Public Health England has issued a Confirmation of Registration authorizing TAAT to be sold in Great Britain. TAAT said it expects to benefit from several competitive advantages in the UK to include a lower price point than tobacco cigarettes and the “shelf appeal” of TAAT’s colourful packaging in comparison to the “plain” packaging required by law for all tobacco products.
Based on Philip Morris International’s stated intention to stop selling tobacco cigarettes in the UK by 2030, it will become the first market in the world where brands such as Marlboro will not compete with TAAT.
TAAT said it plans to expand its Beyond Nicotine initiative into the UK in support of market conditions that seek to mitigate the prevalence of nicotine products.
“Less than one year after the first retail launch of TAAT in Ohio, we could not be more enthusiastic about our first international expansion materializing shortly after we cleared the 1,000-store threshold in the United States last week,” observed TAAT CEO Setti Coscarella. “GGE has proven to be an invaluable distribution partner for us in navigating the steps required to bring TAAT into the United Kingdom and Ireland.”
Coscarella said that in addition to Beyond Tobacco’s advantages with respect to price and packaging in the UK, he also also believes TAAT Menthol can be extremely appealing to smokers of legal age in the UK who preferred mentholated tobacco cigarettes before they were banned nationwide last year.
TAAT has set out to carve itself a niche in the multi-billion dollar global tobacco market by developing an alternative to both nicotine tobacco and vaping. It is a proponent of a ‘third way’ in which it develops a core product that can compete against nicotine cigarettes at a much lower price point.
Listen: Podcast: with Joe Deighan, Founder and Director of Research, TAAT Global Alternatives
Target market: existing smokers
TAAT’s main target market has always been the existing smoker seeking a solution that will help them get off the addictive qualities of nicotine. The sheer number of existing smokers globally mean the company has a large potential market to go after.TAAT targeted a number of states in the US, starting with Ohio, which alone has over 5m smokers and a large distribution network for cigarettes. The company’s management has always seen the UK as an important potential overseas market due to the high tax placed in UK nicotine cigarettes and more recently the menthol ban.
TAAT confirmed at the end of August that it had received its first container order for Australia, again working with Green Global Earth.