other than laugh at me frankly if I’d gone in and said ‘I want to start
manufacturing in South Wales in the middle of a recession – it just
didn’t sound like a good idea, so I didn’t even bother going to them
or asking them.”
But this self-start-up just “built and built from that £200 investment
to £2 million a year turnover within a few years.” After securing their
first premises back in October 2009, the Decadent Vapours team
expanded to four employees by the end of the first year, giving them
further freedom to experiment.
Listening to the vaping community, they initially held online raffles
where a flavour suggestion was chosen each month. That flavour
was then manufactured, shipped to the user who had inspired them
and then put on sale for the general public.
Decadent Vapours have now produced hundreds of flavours – over
300 in fact – in thousands of different variations, from caviar to curry,
roast beef to rainbow fruit, to Peter’s personal favourite: their award-
winning absinthe juice.
“I think we hit the wave at just the right time, if I’m honest it was
largely timing – that and a very public presence on the forums. I
think being community-involved is the key, that and the internet,
the amount you push business. You need to make opportunity
for yourself online by getting involved in the community, not just
spamming them with ads, really, actually get involved – because
people can tell.”
“I think in the juice market we did capture that sense of variety
and vaping different things by really embracing some of the exotic
flavours. You don’t need to advertise it if you release a roast
chicken e-liquid because everyone is going to see it, their jaws
are going to drop and they’re immediately going to start emailing
their friends saying, ‘Oh have you seen this?’
Attributing the success of Decadent Vapours to a number
of factors, Peter’s determination and faith in the industry seems
resilient. With regulations imposed over the years, the company
rose to the challenge and met with the MHRA to combat the ‘light
touch appropriate regulations’ they were facing, regulations which
they say could have cost the company up to £20 billion to comply.
“They said that each product would have to be tested to get a
license, just like a medicine, and that would cost somewhere in
the region of half to one and a half million pounds per product. It
would cost my company something in the excess of £20 billion to
comply.”
“It was the middle of the recession,
early 2009, I had no previous
experience, no bank was going to lend
me money or do anything other than
laugh at me frankly if I’d gone in and
said, ‘I want to start manufacturing
in South Wales in the middle of a
recession – it just didn’t sound like
a good idea, so I didn’t even bother
going to them or asking them.”
“We just weren’t going to take no for an answer, we got [together]
the facts and the studies. We mobilised too much of the vaping
community for them to just be able to shut it down.”
Here’s to another Decadent decade.
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