Lighting up Sales! W


Publicly traded Vapor Corp. has a hot product on its hands. Its electronic cigarettes are delivering glowing profits to specialty retailers all across the country. Emily Lambert


hat’s smokin’ in the common area? Electronic cigarettes and the registers of retailers ringing them up, thanks to Kevin Frija, president of Vapor Corp., and his brother Adam, director of business development and licensing.


There are approximately 46 million smokers in the United States, according to the American Heart


Association. All of them are potential customers of Miami-based Vapor Corp.’s electronic cigarettes. “Our target market are smokers, the existing tobacco consumer; men, women, young and old,” says Kevin. “They are already spending money on a smoking product, they just need to make the switch. It’s a bit of an easier sale,” he adds. Especially when you factor in the benefits. “There are millions of smokers, and everyone’s banned public


smoking,” says Kevin. Electronic cigarettes allow smokers to enjoy a smoke, or a “vape” as it’s called in the electronic cigarette industry, in public places again. How so? Because, Kevin says, electronic cigarettes are smokeless, “producing a vapor that’s mostly water that dissipates into the air seconds later, with no lingering particles,” unlike smoke from burning tobacco which attaches itself to clothing, and offends others in the nearby vicinity. Kevin adds that the


products are free of tobacco, which means they can’t be blamed for bad breath, yellow teeth, or foul odor. It isn’t any wonder that the electronic cigarette is taking the specialty retail market by storm. In just two years, Vapor Corp. has grown to be a publicly traded company (OTCBB:VPCO) starting from a handful of carts to hundreds of them.


Early launch Kevin came across the electronic cigarette in China in 2008. He was traveling at the time as


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Winter 2011 n Specialty Retail Report


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