Growth in sales of e-cigarettes is faltering on both sides of the Atlantic, challenging forecasts that vaping devices will become the dominant alternative to smoking and provide a sustainable lifeline for big tobacco.
British American Tobacco, the FTSE 100 group behind Vuse e-cigarettes, said last week it expected sales of its vaping devices to fall by a mid-teens percentage globally in the first half of the year.
In the US, the world’s largest vaping market, year-on-year sales of regulated devices have fallen almost every month during the past two years, according to data provider Nielsen. Meanwhile in the UK, the second-largest market, vaping prevalence has levelled off.