The North West is falling behind the South East in turnover in the vaping industry, a new study has revealed.
The UK’s fast growing vaping sector – now a multi-billion pound industry – rakes in hundreds of millions of pounds across the UK and supports jobs for nearly 18,000 full-time equivalent workers.
New research on the economic impact of vaping – commissioned by the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) – has been analysed across 12 regions in the UK.
John Dunne, the Director General of the UKVIA, said: “This is the first time that vaping’s contribution to the regional economies of the UK has been examined in such detail.”
The economic impact assessment – compiled by the Centre for Economics and Business Research – was taken over a four-year period between 2017 and 2021.
The results found that the region with the highest turnover contribution in 2017 was the North West with a turnover of £163 million – but that in 2019 the South East overtook it at the top of the list.
These findings notably mirror the regions with the highest number of vape shops.
The region which remained the smallest contributor to turnover for three out of the four years was Northern Ireland at around £35 million.
London was the region which saw the highest growth in the vaping industry over the four-year period, with a 109% increase in turnover.
Employment levels were also analysed by the report which showed the region with the highest relative growth in employment in the vaping industry over the four year period was Scotland at 70%.
This was closely followed by the North West at a 65% growth.
Multiple regions did also see a decline in employment across the vaping industry, with Yorkshire and the Humber declining most significantly at 34%, followed closely by Wales at 32%.
The report also found that the UK vaping industry supported employment in deprived communities at a local authority level.
It concluded: “The vaping industry supports employment across all regions across the UK, however, this particularly occurs in areas of high deprivation, or where employment opportunities are limited.
“There is a positive relationship between regional unemployment rates and regional vaping industry employment.
“This supports the hypothesis that the vaping sector employment is disproportionately important, in areas with otherwise lower labour market opportunities.”
Mr Dunne said: “It is clear that these economic benefits are not shared equally throughout the country but there is no reason that those areas which performed less well than others should always be that way.
“I found it very heartening that the report highlighted the positive relationship between regional unemployment rates and regional vaping industry employment.
“It is obviously a good thing that the sector can make such a big difference in this way but there is still much more to be achieved.”
Main image credit: JBP Associates Ltd.
