British American Tobacco Kenya - New categories

It is widely acknowledged that most of the harm associated with conventional cigarettes is caused by the toxicants in the smoke produced by the burning of tobacco. Despite the inherent health risks, many people continue to choose to smoke.

The idea behind tobacco harm reduction is to encourage smokers who wouldn’t otherwise quit, to migrate to products that deliver nicotine without those toxic chemicals.

No tobacco or nicotine product is 100% safe and anyone wanting to be totally risk-free shouldn’t use them. However, the principle of harm reduction is that, compared with continuing to smoke conventional cigarettes, it is better to switch to products that are considered to have potentially reduced risk.

BAT Group’s New Categories portfolio comprises:

•  Vapour products such as e-cigarettes,
•  Tobacco heating products (THPs),
•  Modern oral products, including tobacco-free nicotine pouches, and
•  Traditional oral products, including moist snuff and snus.

Modern Oral Nicotine products without tobacco

In recent years, a new category of modern oral products has emerged. These come in the form of nicotine pouches that are placed under the lip so that nicotine can be absorbed by the body. BAT’s modern oral products are white in colour and contain high purity nicotine, water and other high-quality food-grade ingredients, including eucalyptus and pine tree fibres, flavouring and sweeteners.

In a fast-moving world that continuously calls for improvement and variety, the demand for innovative oral products continues to grow. In order to meet the evolving needs of consumers, BAT Kenya introduced in the market VELO, BAT’s Modern Oral Nicotine pouch without tobacco .

With a high incidence of oral stimulant-use amongst Kenyan smokers, we believe that VELO offers a viable alternative to smoking. We are confident that the sale of VELO can be a commercial success and has the potential to lead to a reduction in the projected health burden associated with smoking related diseases in Kenya.