Flavour capsule cigarettes continue to experience strong global growth

Correspondence to Dr Crawford Moodie, Institute for Social Marketing, School of Health Sciences and Sport, University of Stirling, Stirlingshire FK9 4LA, UK; c.s.moodie@stir.ac.uk Cigarettes with flavour-changing capsules in the filter, a continuing success story for tobacco companies, have grown exponentially since being introduced in 2007. The global capsule market is estimated to be 150 billion sticks in 2017.1 We provide an update on the capsule market since 2014.2 From this time, capsule cigarettes have been introduced in new markets in Europe (Croatia, Spain), Africa (Tunisia), Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay) and Asia (China, India, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam).3 They are the fastest growing segment of the combustible market,4 with market share increasing between 2014 and 2017 in 52 of the 67 countries where they are sold and monitored by tobacco analyst Euromonitor.3 These products now have market share greater than 10% in four European countries (UK, Hungary, Ireland, Poland), and have increased 12% in the Middle East and Africa.1 The five most popular capsule markets remain in Latin America (see figure 1), with market share increasing by at least 40% in each of these countries since 2014. There are now myriad flavours used, including variations of mint (eg, wild mint, strawberry mint) and some inspired by fruit (eg, orange peel, mango, cucumber) or beverages and cocktails (eg, green tea, whisky, mojito).7 Tobacco industry journals report a demand for new flavours,8 as well as an interest in non-flavour options, with water capsules recently used in some countries to modify the taste through cooling rather than imparting a flavour.9 Since 2014, flavour capsules have also become available in filters for roll-your-own and make-your-own cigarettes, as well as cigars, cigarillos and heated tobacco products.10–12 Figure 2. [...]tobacco industry journals suggest that while larger health warnings and plain packaging reduce the opportunity for brand promotion and make brand building more difficult, filter characteristics still allow for brand differentiation and marketing.9 14 15 In Australia and the UK, tobacco companies introduced several new capsule variants after plain packaging was fully implemented;16 at least five new capsule variants were brought to market in the UK in 2018 alone.