It started with Eurobrands Distribution and Ciggebutikerna in Sweden. Now the parent company Harm Reduction Group is also filing for bankruptcy. The HRG board announced this in a press release on Tuesday. The company's CEO Petter Strömberg left his position on Monday.
"Due to events that have come to the attention of the Board of Directors in recent weeks, the Board has been working to resolve a serious liquidity crisis that has arisen. The Board has been forced to recognise that the Company has failed to find a solution to the problems." Harm Reduction Group wrote in a press release.
On Monday, the company announced that its CEO of 6 months, and originally Eurobrand's founder, Petter Strömberg, has decided to step down from his position.
Has bought up several businesses
As Vejpkollen reported last week things happened very quickly when Eurobrands Distribution AB closed the doors of the majority of its seven stores in Sweden in just a few hours. Around fifty employees and staff were made redundant.
Eurobrand's owner Norwegian/Swedish Harm Reduction Group has since 2021 bought a number of companies in the e-cigarette industry (or the non-smoking segment in market language). The company operates through physical stores and online retailers in Norway, Sweden and the UK.
In addition to Eurobrands and Cigge Store, the company also owns the Norwegian chain Norse Vape (14 stores) and distributes e-cigs to nearly 500 local and convenience stores, mainly in Sweden. Its customers include several Direkten stores.
How physical stores are affected
In total, 21 physical stores and 8 online stores are affected by the bankruptcy.
Cigge Store, which has a total of 7 stores in Sweden, has closed all but two stores last week (Borlänge and Uppsala):
Stores closed: Örebro, Västerås, Norrköping, Karlstad, Farsta Centrum
Norse Vape has a total of 14 physical stores selling e-cigs and other smokeless nicotine products in Norway:
Halden, Kongsvinger, Drammen, Lillestrøm, Oslo, Bergen, Bodø, Tromsø, Trondheim, Alta, Ålesund, Flekkefjord, Larvik, Porsgrunn.
It is not yet clear how the Norwegian stores are affected by the bankruptcy.
Several online shops
Harm Reduction Group also owns many online sites with addresses in Sweden, Norway and the UK.
In Sweden, these are cigge.se, eurobrands.se and elekcig.se
In Norway, these are: nordamp.no, friskedrdag.no, elektroniske-sigaretter.no and cigge.no
In the UK: norsevape.co.uk
How are you affected?
Are you a user affected by the bankruptcy of Harm Reduction Group? Get in touch with Vejpkollen!
stefan@vejpkollen.se
Let me tell you why Harm Reduction Group's bankruptcy and the closure of their shops is a disaster - not just for those of us who already vejpar, but for public health in general. I have experienced myself what vaping can do. In 2015, after many years as a heavy smoker, I suffered from high blood pressure and sleep apnoea. I felt miserable and stuck in a lifestyle that was destroying my health. When I started vejpa, everything changed. It gave me the power to take charge of my health for real. Today, I live without sleep apnoea or high blood pressure - without any medication or aids. For me, vaping wasn't just an alternative to smoking, it was a saviour.
But Sweden's move to make vape products more difficult to obtain doesn't just hit those of us who have already given up cigarettes - it hits everyone who still smokes and needs a less harmful alternative. Smoking remains one of the biggest causes of disease and death in the world, and any barrier to switching to something safer risks keeping more people stuck in a lifestyle that ultimately kills them.
It is not just about access to products. When shops close, an important part of the support and advice that many people, especially beginners, need to find the right product and make the transition from cigarettes successful is lost. Without this help, it will be easier for people to give up and harder for new vejp users to even dare to try.
And the consequences do not end there. As alternatives decrease, and the cost of products increases through taxation and import duties, we risk more people falling back to cigarettes. This is not just a personal failure - it is a societal problem. Every person who goes back to smoking means more health care costs, more lives lost, and a continued dependence on cigarettes, which is one of our biggest public health burdens.
We only need to look at Norway to understand the risks. They have introduced a flavour ban, allowing only tobacco flavours. This has removed one of the main benefits of vaping - the ability to offer attractive flavours that make cigarettes unattractive. A similar future threatens us in Sweden if regulations continue to tighten. And the result? More people who continue to smoke, fewer who dare to take the step away from cigarettes, and public health that goes backwards rather than forwards.
But this is also about justice. Vaping has saved my life and the lives of thousands of others, but with every hurdle placed on us vejpers, it signals that our health is not as important. It is absurd to make it harder for people to choose a less harmful alternative while cigarettes are still available in every corner shop.
This is about more than just us as vejpar. It's about public health. It's about empowering more people to make a better choice - a choice that can save lives.