We take great pride here at Dinner Lady in the close relationships we develop with our wholesale and retail partners all over the world.
We work with them to ensure we offer the right products for their local markets, to identify upcoming trends and to set the pace for others to follow.
It’s through one of these relationships, with our Greek distribution partner SMOK–E that we have created a new format for Greece this summer – aiming to meet the needs of retailers and changing consumer habits in the pandemic / post-pandemic vape market.
IDENTIFYING A PROBLEM
Since early 2020, vape stores have been closed in many countries, or operating at reduced capacities or offering new services such as deliveries or click and collect. And one of the key elements of vape store customer service, offering customers testers of new or alternative vape juices to their usual flavours or brands has become a thing of the past.
But vapers are not necessarily creatures of habit – they like to experiment, to try something new and to find fresh favourites for their tanks.
It was with this in mind that Nektarios Zafeiris at SMOK–E approached his Dinner Lady account manager Bogdan Martin to see what we could do to support his retailer customers when buying their wholesale vape supplies.
With DIY vaping hugely popular in Greece, the main Dinner Lady products sold there are 20ml Longfills and 40ml Longfills. These are 20mls or 40mls of flavour concentrate sold in 60ml or 120ml bottles, for vapers to add their own preferred mix of PG and VG, with their nicotine strength of choice.
FINDING A SOLUTION
“It has been hard in so many countries, where vape shop operations have been reduced in various ways,” said Bogdan. “But we wanted to create a new way for vapers to try different Dinner Lady flavours, without the commitment of a full-sized bottle.”
Between them, Bogdan and Nektarios had the idea to add a new 10ml Longfill to the range – offering 10ml of concentrated premium Dinner Lady flavour in a 30ml bottle.
The new mini- or half-Longfill gives consumers a lower cost option if they want to try new flavours. The range features Dinner Lady's iconic original Lemon Tart, as well as a selection of best sellers including Apple Sours, Bubble Trouble, Caramel Tobacco, Lemon Sherbets, Smooth Tobacco, Sweet Fusion and Watermelon Slices.
The reason for the popularity of Longfill formats are popular in Greece is because of a €1 per 10mls tax on pre-mixed PG/VG e-liquids. Because of this, many vapers therefore choose to mix their own e-liquid blends, to save the tax by purchasing each component separately.
Bogdan explained: “As well as vapers not being able to try new flavours in their local vape store, we also acknowledged there are a lot of people out there who don’t necessarily have the same income to spend on their e-liquids because of the impact of Covid-19 on employment and commerce.
“Despite this, premium e-liquids have remained incredibly popular in Greece – Dinner Lady is the country’s second biggest brand in 2020-21. But, by introducing this smaller bottle format, we think people will be more likely to try new flavours again. It’s very much a product to suit the 2021 vape retail trends in Greece.”
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Bogdan praised Nektarios as a visionary in bringing the idea to Dinner Lady.
“He’s a real expert on vape in Greece and we’re lucky to have such a good strategic partnership with SMOK–E where we can have these conversations and bring something new to the market to meet the needs of both the retailer and the end consumer.
“We do love to take on board new ideas from our partners wherever possible, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of this pilot scheme, which we would hope to roll out elsewhere once we see the results.”
Read more about the Greek vape market on our Top 10 Countries feature.
If you think 10ml Longfills would be popular in your vape wholesale business or independent vape store, please email sales@vapedinnerlady.com or fill in the form below and one of our team will be in touch.
