RELX, the leading e-cigarette brand in Asia, is officially launched Friday to provide adult smokers a platform to switch from traditional smoking to less harmful practice and eventually aid users to reaching a non-smoking status.
Company director for Southeast Asia Business Di Yang said the idea was to give smokers a chance to choose a better lifestyle.
“One of the focal points of our mission is to lessen the harmful effects of smoking to secondary smokers. Not only do we give smokers options but we do intend to curb effects to secondary as well as third-hand smokers,” he said.
Barely two years in operations, RELX is now the number 1 e-cigarette brand in Southeast Asia and in Asia.
Yang cited plans to create another hub in Southeast Asia, with the Philippines among the first candidate after the headquarters in Beijing, China.
“RELX hopes to contribute to the Philippines’ economic growth through the investments we are bringing, including the employment that we will be generating,” he said.
With 15 million smokers, the Philippines is a key market for RELX.
“We will be opening retail outlets, appointing distributors, building up a strong local organization to run what we believe to be a very meaningful presence here,” said Yang.
The company tapped local distributors Lighting Galore and Fuma to market RELX in the Philippines. It has recently forged an agreement with convenience store 7-11 to sell the brand while working out similar deals with other chains like Family Mart.
RELX is also moving its global consumer service to a business process outsourcing company in Manila to man the company’s backend processes. The company expects to expand the BPO business parallel to the growth in sales.
“We welcome regulations to ensure that the industry adopts good practices that can benefit the country. We would like to have the opportunity to work with the Philippine government to develop a progressive regulatory framework that best reduce the longstanding impact cigarette smoking has had in the Philippines,” Yang said.