High taxes and the negative health risks associated with traditional tobacco products have pushed investors away from tobacco companies and their stocks during the past decade. However, over the past few years, a revolutionary technology has become mainstream and now investors are jumping over one another to get a piece of the action.
Of course, the technology I’m talking about is electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, which are widely considered to be one of the most disruptive new technologies to hit the market during the past few years.
In particular, traditional tobacco has many different styles and flavors; each flavor, cut, and blend comes from a different producer, region or factory, all giving the end user a different “experience” and allowing for the thousands of different types of tobacco in use today. In comparison, e-cigs are essentially similar in all factors apart from flavor, which can easily be replicated if you know the recipe.
Growing competition
Currently, Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO), Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI), Imperial Tobacco, British American Tobacco, and Altria all have e-cig brands in development. In addition, Vapor Corp. (OTCMKTS:VPCO) (the only fully reporting publicly traded electronic-cigarette company within the U.S.) and privately held NJOY are the largest pure-plays in the sector.
With so many competitors in such a relatively small but rapidly growing market, it is highly likely that price wars will soon start to ripple across the market. Rising competition means smaller margins, which will inevitably push some smaller competitors out of the market.
First mover
Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO) acquired Blu eCigs last year for $135 million, and so far growth has been explosive; the brand is already in 80,000 stores.
Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO) and Blu have the “first mover” advantage. Blu already has a 40% share of the e-cig market within the U.S., and sales during the second quarter alone totaled $57 million. For the first half, the gross margin stood at 33% although the net margin was only 8%. However, this did include the cost of rolling out the product across the country; margins should expand into the third quarter and second half of the year.
Unfortunately, in comparison, Vapor Corp. (OTCMKTS:VPCO) is hardly able to compete. Vapor Corp. (OTCMKTS:VPCO)’s sales for the first six months of the year totaled $12.5 million and the gross margin was 40%. Nonetheless, the company’s tiny size means that it is not able to achieve the economies of scale that Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO) can, and the net margin was only 0.5% for the first half of the year. That said, performance in the second quarter was poor and the company lost $54,600 while the gross margin contracted to 39%.
When we compare Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO)’s performance to that of Vapor, we can easily see how hard it is for smaller companies to break into this industry. On the other hand, it also shows how easy it is for larger, existing tobacco companies to enter the industry. Moreover, as Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO) already controls nearly half of the market, it’s going to be even harder for more competitors to enter the market.
