In early April, Geekvape took advantage of its partnership with Paris Saint-Germain football club, and showcased its new VPU vaping technology and its future intelligent factory at the Parc des Princes. This gave us the chance to chat to Potti Lan, Marketing Director for the Chinese e-cigarette manufacturer.
Hello, Potti Lan, could you introduce yourself and your brand Geekvape?
Hi, my name is Potti Lan and I’m the Marketing Director at Geekvape. I worked for a few consumer electronics companies before joining Geekvape in 2021. I haven’t been here long, but I really like this industry because Geekvape is a very well-known brand of e-cigarettes. As you know, Geekvape was founded in 2015. So the company is now seven years old. I’m very proud to say that Geekvape has become a global brand. Our sales network covers 17 countries and we’re one of the leaders in the industry. That’s why meeting the French public is such a big deal for us. France is our main European market, so we pay a lot of attention to it. We’re working hard to promote our brand and to steer the industry towards a regulated marketing environment.
Can you tell us about the event you organised at the Parc des Princes?
This stadium has witnessed countless legendary moments and seen a lot of great players come and go. A lot of big announcements have been made here too. We’re here because Geekvape has launched a new, technologically innovative solution. So we’d like to invite you to attend this major event at the Parc des Princes.
The European market is stable, people want high quality products and the industry is completely regulated – that’s important for Geekvape.
Why is Western Europe, and especially France, so important to Geekvape ?
The European market is very, very different. It’s also very special for us because the regulations here are stable. That isn’t true of other countries like Southeast Asia where the legislation changes constantly, or the USA where the marketing changes all the time and people are always looking for something new. In Europe, the market is stable. Really stable. People want high quality products and the entire industry is regulated. That’s important for Geekvape because we’re working towards being a regulated company and promoting our brand that way, particularly in France. As you know, we are France’s leading brand. Everyone can see that we’re taking our work here seriously.
Why did you choose football, and specifically a French club, to promote your brand?
Over the next few years, I think we’ll be working very closely with our partners, like Paris Saint-Germain and The Vaping Post. A partnership between two legends like Paris Saint-Germain and Geekvape is extremely appealing. Geekvape has worked hard to encourage people to lead a healthier lifestyle. For me, sport goes hand in hand with a healthy lifestyle. Geekvape and Paris Saint-Germain have their own visions, but we’ve also successfully built a shared vision. That’s why we were able to get down to business so fast. Together, we want to encourage people to lead a healthy lifestyle.
That’s why we chose PSG. I think it’s real progress. Switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes is progress. It’s the first step in helping people to stop smoking. E-cigarettes are a technological advance. The players on the pitch are also making progress: they’re working towards their objectives. This is why I’m so keen to promote our products through this partnership. Our key word is progress.
With a 200-strong R&D team, Geekvape has created the industry’s leading institute for fundamental research.
Can you tell us more about your research and development team? How big is the team, and what are their objectives?
With its R&D team of over 200 people, Geekvape has created the industry’s first institute for fundamental research dedicated to researching cutting-edge e-cigarette technology. The institute has teamed up with leading universities to create a research centre for advanced ceramic technologies. This centre is dedicated to researching and developing new atomizer technologies, and has 100% capacity to mass produce many different types of e-cigarettes.
You’ve built a brand new 14,000m2, intelligent factory in Zhuhai. Can you tell us more about it? What would you like to achieve?
The new industrial park will be 15 times bigger than our existing Geekvape plant in Zhuhai. It has three standard workshops and over 80 production lines. We’ve used lean, information-based and automated manufacturing. Our intelligent factory will be fully operational and highly automated by August 2023. That will allow us to increase our production capacity and manufacture intelligent products thanks to a packaging process on a huge, automated assembly line.
In the future, Geekvape plans to offer a total solution rather than a single-point technology, because no single-point technology can give consumers a complete vaping experience.
What technological or scientific challenges did you have to overcome to design and build this intelligent factory?
We used lean production, which reduces waste, and standardised process management to develop an industry-leading lean supply chain model and higher quality products and services for our customers. I’d say Geekvape’s supply chain has been the main challenge, because it takes a lot of time to synchronise all of the financial and sales transactions with the IT and logistics side.
Will this intelligent factory help you to develop new technologies?
Digitisation and intelligent manufacturing will massively benefit our production volume and efficiency. It’ll also guarantee that our products are made according to consistent high-quality standards for consumers around the world. Integrated packaging technology and three-level QR coding deliver greater traceability, which combat counterfeiting and illegal sales.
What exciting developments can vapers expect from Geekvape in the future?
Continuous research by leading manufacturers of vaping products has led to technological advances like ceramic coils. Even so, they are still coming up against a lot of problems in terms of flavour, the safety of raw materials and shelf life. All of these massively impact user experience. In the future, Geekvape plans to offer a total solution rather than a single-point technology, because no single-point technology can give consumers a complete vaping experience.
Our disposable vape brand Geekbar is very popular in the UK, but big vapes are still the most popular in France.
Where are Geekvape’s main markets at the moment?
Right now, we sell in over 70 countries around the world. Although there are emerging markets like Southeast Asia and Russia, I’d say that our main markets are still the USA and Europe. Within Europe, I’d say that France and the UK are the most important countries.
What are Geekvape’s best-sellers at the moment? Are there any geographical variations?
Our Aegis series is still our best-seller. Since last year, we’ve also launched the Wenax and U series which use cartridges and have been very popular. As far as geographical variations go, I think all of our markets have really loved the Aegis series. Our disposable vape brand Geekbar is very popular in the UK, but big vapes are still the most popular in France.
What do you think vaping products will look like in the future?
At our April press conference at Parc des Princes, we revealed a brand-new vaping technology called the VPU, or Vaping Processing Unit. It incorporates the latest developments in materials safety, liquid and heat transmission, and research into advanced materials. It’ll give consumers a complete solution. Soon everyone will be able to enjoy it in our two newest series, the Geekvape Q and the Geekbar Meloso. These have been designed to the VPU standard.