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P
AX, the San Francisco-based
company, puts out what has
been dubbed the “iPhone of
vaporizers,” now in its third generation.
It is also the genius behind the sleek
closed (pod) system nicotine deliv-
ery device that looks more like a USB
thumb drive than an e-cigarette. It ad-
ditionally launched a super-premium
THC vaporizer, expected to further in-
crease its exposure to the cannabis cat-
egory, currently available in two states—
Colorado and California.
PAX 3, Juul and PAX Era, respec-
tively, are the technological offspring of
PAX Labs, a premium electronic player
intending to reinvent the smoking ex-
perience.
Tobacco Business International
recently
caught up with Tyler Goldman, PAX’s
technology-savvy CEO since August.
Here are his industry and company
thoughts from a premium perch:
TBI
:
Please give us an update on Juul since
the August 8 deadline passed. How have
sales been, and where is Juul selling the
best, channel-wise?
Goldman:
Sales have continued to
grow for us in quite an accelerated fash-
ion; it’s true of the starter kits and the
(pod) refills—both are much higher
than we anticipated. That’s resulted in
a shortage. We are working very hard,
but we’re still not there yet, to get the
supply chain output to meet the current
demand, so it’s halted opening up new
doors. Today we’re only in 7 percent of
c-stores—our primary distribution is in
c-stores and vape stores, which is newer.
We increased our production to 2 mil-
lion pods per month, but we’re still only
meeting 50 percent of demand. With
new automated machinery, we should
be at 5 million pods by January. We ex-
pect to significantly expand our distri-
bution footprint.
TBI:
It was recently reported in the
New
York Post
that a “slew of opportunistic
tobacconists” throughout New York City
have been jacking up prices for the flavored
nicotine pods used to refill Juul. Some shops
were reportedly marking up four-packs of
so-called “Juulpods” by as much as 88 per-
cent—to $29.99 from the suggested retail
price of $15.99. What happened and how
do you fix the price gouging?
From
the
PAX
Perch
The new CEO of what is reportedly the most
premium platform in the vapor world shoots
from the hip with
TBI
.
By Renée Covino
electric
ALLEY
21
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016