E-cigarette shop opens in Knaresborough

An e-cigarette shop has opened on Knaresborough High Street.

Kings Lites is based in the former Yorkshire Building Society unit that has been vacant since 2018.

The e-cigarette specialist already has two stores in York and is looking at opening a fourth site, with Harrogate on its radar.

Former professional boxer Zak Collins, founder and director of Kings Lites, said the store aimed to help smokers quit and move onto e-cigarettes.

Mr Collins said:

“It is a healthier alternative to smoking and saves you a fortune. Cigarettes now cost around £17 a pack, if you switch to e-cigarettes you are saving around £120 a week if you smoke a pack a day, that can add up to a family holiday.

“It is also better for the environment and we have recyclable vape bins in our stores.”

Mr Collins said he grew up following a healthy lifestyle but his parents smoked and he watched his mum struggle to quit using replacement products.

When she eventually managed it using an e-cigarette, Mr Collins had his “lightbulb moment” and opened the Acomb store in York to help others.

‘We have received a lot of hate’

A social media post by the company announcing its opening said the Knaresborough shop would “help, serve and advise the local community on living a much healthier and finically beneficial lifestyle”.

Mr Collins said a 2021 NHS review found people who used e-cigarettes to quit smoking were up to twice as likely to succeed as people who used other nicotine replacement products, such as patches or gum.

But he added there remained a stigma around e-cigarette stores. When Kings Lites announced its new location, it received a backlash on this Knaresborough Facebook group for what it does and its colourful frontage.

Mr Collins said:

“It is completely shocking, the shops in York have always gone down really well. We have received a lot of hate opening the new shop and it is difficult to understand and quite insulting.

“There is a market for us in Knaresborough and we offer a huge selection. The shop is a big change for the High Street but things are bound to change and the colour is just to draw people in, the ones in York are the same.

“I just hope people will give us a chance to show who we are. We haven’t set out to upset anyone or be garish we are just trying to help people quit smoking and give the people of Knaresborough a healthier alternative.”

Mr Collins didn’t comment on today’s vote to ban smoking and vaping for children born since 2009 but said:

“Children vaping is horrendous and the entire industry gets tarnished because of it. We take pride in offering people a healthier alternative.”

He said the company planned to “strike while the iron is hot” by expanding, adding it was looking at potential sites in the Harrogate area to open its fourth store.

Read more:

County council will not fund ‘indefinite e-cigarettes habit’

North Yorkshire County Council has emphasised it will not fund people’s use of e-cigarettes indefinitely after agreeing to supply the electric vaporisers to those wanting to quit tobacco.

The authority approved supplying e-cigarettes to smokers who choose to adopt them as a method of quitting, as part of its Living Well Smokefree programme, which is being credited with enabling a dramatic decline in smoking across the county over the last decade.

While some 18% of adults in North Yorkshire smoked in 2011, by 2021 that had fallen to just 11%, significantly less than the national average of 13.3%.

The authority’s executive member for public health Cllr Michael Harrison said in order to meet the national ambition of a smoke-free population by 2030 access to all stop smoking aids was essential.

The move follows a pilot by the county’s Living Well Smokefree service finding a 93% success rate of 144 people set a quit date with the intent of using an e-cigarette as a harm reduction intervention.

When asked if the government’s ambition to have a a smoke-free population by 2030 was possible in North Yorkshire, Cllr Harrison said it would take “real action”, such as the Living Well Smokefree Service initiative.

He said: 

“So many health complaints that people hace are still smoking-related, so it’s still one of the biggest concerns for the NHS and public health teams.

“It is right that we use public health monies to try and improve the situation. It’s great to see that there’s lots of people stopping, but there’s too many people starting smoking.”

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A public health officer’s report states although the most recent evidence suggests that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than smoking tobacco, they are not risk-free.

Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, as well as other ingredients such as propylene glycol, glycerine and flavourings.

Cancer Research UK says while some potentially dangerous chemicals have been found in e-cigarettes, levels are usually low and generally far lower than in tobacco cigarettes.

The charity says exposure may be the same as people who use nicotine replacement therapy, such as patches or gum, which the county’s stop smoking service is already providing.

When asked if supplying e-cigarettes to people could lead to mixed messages, particularly following concerns that an increasing number of children were being attracted to e-cigarettes, Cllr Harrison emphasised e-cigarettes were “a short-term tool”.

He said emphasised e-cigarettes would only be given to people giving up smoking tobacco when they were on the 12-week programme, during which time the strength of the e-cigarettes would be reduced.

He said: 

“There’s too many people going straight from not smoking to e-cigarettes, but that’s not a good idea. E-cigarettes are only a good idea in the short-term to help someone give up tobacco.

“Public health are not endorsing e-cigarettes, which evidence says are less harmful than tobacco, but the long-term effects of e-cigarettes are still unknown.

“We are certainly not going to fund someone’s e-cigarette habit. There is not going to be taxpayer-funded long-term e-cigarette use.”