British American Tobacco expands glo™ distribution in seven big cities in Romania

British American Tobacco (BAT) Romania has announced in a press conference on Wednesday it would extend the glo™ distribution network on the markets of seven major cities in Romania: Bucharest, Constanța, Craiova, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Brașov and Iași.

glo™ is BAT’s latest product which is based on a revolutionary tobacco heating technology which doesn’t burn tobacco, but rather heats it.

The announcement made today in Bucharest is part of the British American Tobacco’s global strategy to provide customers with new ways of enjoying tobacco, by cutting-edge products which are potentially less risky than cigarettes.

Starting this week, the Neostiks will be available in about 2,000 stores, international supermarket chians and gas stations in the seven cities. At the same time, a team of glo™ ambassadors has been recently set up to facilitate smokers the access to this product and to provide them with more information on the product’s key features and how to use it.

Now, the device is available online at www.glo.ro, but also in the glo™ shop in Baneasa Shopping City in Bucharest and through the ambassadors’ network. The consumables are also found in the 2,000 selling points nationwide. The promotion price at first purchase of the device, together with ten packages of Kent Neostiks, is RON 200. The price of a Kent Neostiks package will be the same as for a regular cigarette pack, RON 17.

“Glo is about innovation, intuitiveness and simplicity, it’s very easy to use”, said Asli Ertonguc, Southern Central Europe Area Marketing Director at British American Tobacco, who was one of the ambassadors of bringing glo™ on the European market.

She explained the product is designed not to burn tobacco but to heat it at 240C, therefore “there is no combustion, no ash, no smell of smoke on your hand in your hair“. Moreover, its vapour contains around 90-95% less toxicants compared with conventional cigarettes.

“As of this week we started to expand our glo distribution in retail stores in Romania, in seven major cities, in traditional supermarket chains and among the independent retailers. Thus we’ll create new 400 jobs in Romania. As of today we are hoping that glo will be the no 1 choice for alternative to smoking, because glo offers more choice, more innovation. The technology is evolving, thus it’s not smoking, and we like to call it gloing,” Asli Ertonguc stated.

The BAT manager added that, unlike its other competitor products, glo is a single device, with a single button, no external charging device, and a fully charged battery that is enough to consume up to 30 Neostiks.

According to her, the expansion is „a vital part” of the multinational company’s committment and efforts to raise the awareness over these cutting-edge products and to increase the smokers’ access to this potentially less risky product.

Romania was the first EU country where the device has been implemented, the launching taking place in December last year. Romania produces 55% of BAT market share. BAT has invested over USD 2.5 billion since 2012 to design and research these potentially less risky alternatives to traditional smoking.

Kent Neostiks™ are manufactured at BAT’s factory in Saint Petersburg, but, as Asli Ertonguc revealed today, the BAT factory in Ploiesti „is one of the main candidate locations where glo product would be further produced”.

Over 1,500 scientists, engineers, biologists, chemists and tobacco experts are working in the BAT’s research and development centers worldwide.

One of them, Christopher Proctor, Chief Scientific Officer, British American Tobacco, was attending the press conference in Bucharest today, stating that when devloping the glo™, they wanted to offer smokers a similar alternative to smoking, but with less risks for their health than the one associated to cigarettes. „It’s known that burnt tobacco produces many of the harmful substances associated to smoking. Alhough the evaluation of the long term effects on health are still under way, the latest studies show that glo™ produces less toxines than cigarettes by about 90% up to 95%,” explained Christopher Proctor, Chief Scientific Officer, British American Tobacco.