Imperial Brands understands society’s concerns about the health risks of smoking, and we also recognise our important role helping reduce the harm caused by combustible tobacco.
Since establishing our first R&D laboratory in the early 1950s, we’ve been at the forefront of tobacco research. In recent years we’ve increasingly focused on tobacco harm reduction through the development of various Next Generation Products (NGP), enhancing our capabilities through various external acquisitions.
We uphold high standards, rigorously testing and analysing our products to continually build our knowledge base and meet our duty of care for consumers.
Today, we’re a true multi-category company – inspired and driven by science and innovation as we seek to make a meaningful contribution to tobacco harm reduction through our portfolio of NGP.
Joe Thompson
Group Science & Regulatory Affairs Director
Imperial establishes its first R&D laboratory, paving the way for decades of research into understanding its products.
Imperial partners with the UK Government’s Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health to develop the tobacco substitute – ‘New Smoking Material’.
Imperial acquires 43.5% of the shares in the Swedish snus business Skruf, makers of the ‘original harm reduction’ tobacco product.
Imperial takes full ownership of Skruf.
Imperial creates a subsidiary, Fontem Ventures, to focus on developing innovative vape-based Next Generation Products.
‘Inventor of the e-cigarette’ Mr Hon Lik’s global patent portfolio for vapour technologies is acquired from Dragonite International Limited.
Imperial acquires blu, one of the most world’s best-selling vapour brands, strengthening its NGP commitment.
Imperial Tobacco Group becomes Imperial Brands, reflecting the breadth of its contemporary portfolio.
Imperial acquires Nerudia, a UK-based developer of innovative nicotine products. Imperial also begins trialling heated tobacco in Asia and Europe.
The international roll-out of myblu, Imperial’s pod-based vape device, commences alongside the brand’s first range of nicotine salts. We also pioneer new smokeless oral product in Sweden and Norway under the Skruf brand.
Imperial’s heated tobacco brand Pulze launches in Fukuoka, Japan, while zoneX – one of our tobacco-free oral nicotine brands – begins UK trials.
Imperial continues to launch blu, Pulze & iD and Skruf/zoneX in more global markets.
Our next generation HT and vape products, Pulze 2.0 and blu 2.0, arrive. We also launch a disposable vape innovation – blu bar – across a series of markets.
Our diverse team of scientists and other specialists work across the globe. Explore key locations below.
>
Our state-of-the-art R&D facility is transforming our approach to product development. It also houses our Sense Hub, where we research, prototype, develop and test new products directly with consumers.
Imperial’s historic head office location. Here, a large team of scientists and regulatory specialists manage product research, testing and legal technical reporting.
Our main scientific assessment centre conducts our in-house chemical, biological and physical research. The laboratory also assesses product quality and regulatory compliance.
Hub for our team of dedicated computational scientists who analyse the structured and unstructured data across our scientific assessment framework.
Our snus subsidiary Skruf’s primary manufacturing location has on-site laboratory facilities to ensure the continued high quality of our oral nicotine portfolio.
Located across our traditional tobacco manufacturing hubs, our in-house laboratory network holds over 60 accredited testing methods, including internationally recognised ISO certifications.
