Duty Day: Using e-liquid with the Hayati 4K after VPD

Vaping Products Duty starts today. From this morning, anything with e-liquid in it carries a tax of 22p per millilitre. Pods, bottles, disposables, the lot. If there's liquid inside, the duty is on it.

There's one question you'll hear in your shop before lunch, so let's get it out of the way now. Does refilling get you out of paying the duty? No, it doesn't. The tax is on the liquid, not on what it comes in. Ten millilitres of e-liquid means £2.20 in duty whether it's sold as one bottle or as five pods.

So what really changes? Mostly the way people look at their spending. Prices have gone up across the board on the same day, and customers who never gave much thought to what vaping costs them are going to start doing the maths. The price gap between prefilled pods and bottled e-liquid isn't new. The difference now is that people will go looking for it.

What VPD does to a 4K pod

Let's look at the duty by itself first.

	Duty
2ml pod	44p
10ml bottle	£2.20
Pack of five 2ml pods	£2.20

 

Have a proper look at that last row. Five pods hold ten millilitres between them, the same as one bottle, and they pay exactly the same duty. VPD doesn't favour pods or bottles.

The base price is where the difference comes in. Liquid in a bottle has always been cheaper per millilitre than the same liquid in a pod. That's because with a bottle you aren't paying for a new pod, a new coil and fresh packaging each time. The duty gets added on top of both in the same way, so the gap between them stays right where it was. It just sits inside a bigger total now, and bigger totals get noticed.

We've written a separate piece on duty stamps and the March deadline. That's the other half of this story, and it probably matters more for your stockroom than for what's on your shelves.

The sum your customers are about to do

Use your own prices for this part. The ones here are only examples.

Say you sell a Hayati Pro Max+ 4000 pod at £[ RRP]. That pod holds 2ml, so divide the price by two and you've got your price per millilitre.

Now take a 10ml Hayati nic salt at £[ RRP]. Divide that one by ten.

That doesn't mean the 4K pod stops selling. For a lot of people it's still the easier choice. No bottles, no mess, nothing to think about, and plenty of customers will happily keep paying for that.

But think about the regular who gets through four or five pods a week. Their receipt has just gone up and they've noticed. If you don't show them a cheaper way to keep vaping the flavour they like, another shop will.

The flavours that match exactly

This is the bit that makes the whole thing easy, and a lot of shops still haven't spotted it.

Nine of the Hayati Pro Max+ 4K pod flavours have a Hayati nic salt with the very same name. You won't need to hunt for something close or hope it tastes about right. Each pod flavour below has its own bottle.

Flavour	4K pod	10ml nic salt
Triple Mango	2ml pod	10ml
Watermelon Ice	2ml pod	10ml
White Peach Raspberry	2ml pod	10ml
Strawberry Watermelon	2ml pod	10ml
Strawberry Raspberry Blueberry	2ml pod	10ml
Strawberry Kiwi	2ml pod	10ml
Strawberry GB	2ml pod	10ml
Pink Lemonade	2ml pod	10ml
Mr Blue	2ml pod	10ml

 

Same brand, same 20mg strength, same flavour name. Someone who's been buying Triple Mango pods doesn't have to take a chance on something new. They just keep vaping Triple Mango, only now it comes out of a bottle.

That clears up the main reason people say no to refilling. It's rarely because they think it's too hard. Most people are worried they'll spend money on a bottle of something they end up not liking. When the flavour is one they already buy every week, that worry goes away.

An easy time to bring it up is when someone picks up their usual pods at the till. Mention that the same flavour comes in a bottle and point to where it is. Keep it short. Most people like hearing they can save money on something they buy anyway.

How to refill a 4K pod

It takes about fifteen seconds once you've done it a couple of times.

First, pull the mouthpiece off the pod. Then fill it up to the line and stop there, because going past it can cause leaks. Push the mouthpiece back on firmly. Last of all, leave the pod alone for about five minutes before taking a puff.

That last step is the one nearly everybody skips, and it's the reason so many first refills taste burnt. The wick inside needs a few minutes to soak up the fresh liquid. If you puff on it straight away, you're heating a dry wick, and that taste is horrible.

Make a point of telling customers about the wait. Someone who gets a burnt first hit will decide that refilling doesn't work and won't bother trying again.

Be honest about how long a pod lasts

A pod won't last forever, and it's better to say so up front. The coil inside wears out after about a week of refilling, maybe ten days. Once the flavour starts to go flat, or it tastes a bit burnt even with fresh liquid in it, it's time for a new pod.

So refilling doesn't mean customers stop buying pods. It means they buy far fewer of them, plus a bottle or two of nic salt. You still make the pod sale, just less often, and you pick up the bottle sales on top.

 

Stocking for the shift

If you sell pod kits and 4K pods, carry the matching bottles. Nine exact matches means nine conversations that end in a sale instead of a shrug.Put the bottles next to the pods, not in a separate e-liquid section at the back. The decision happens in front of the pods.We supply the full Hayati 4K wholesale range, the matching nic salts and the rest of our Hayati wholesale UK stock, trade only. Open a trade account for pricing, pack sizes and current stock.

 

Questions you'll get this week

Does refilling get around the vape duty?

No. Duty is charged on every millilitre of liquid, and it's the same in a bottle as it is in a pod. Refilling works out cheaper because the liquid itself costs less per millilitre in a bottle. It has nothing to do with tax.

How much duty is on a 10ml bottle?

£2.20. That's 22p per millilitre, and it stays the same whatever the nicotine strength. Zero nicotine liquid pays it too.

Are prices going to keep going up?

The duty rate is fixed. Where shop prices go from here depends on the market, and anyone who tells you they know for sure is guessing.

Can I put any e-liquid in a Hayati 4K pod?

Any 50/50 nic salt will work. Stay away from thick sub-ohm liquid, though. It won't soak into a small pod coil properly and it'll leak. The Hayati bottles are 50/50, so they're the easy choice.