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During the third quarter of last year, Lorillard’s electronic cigarette sales fell by nearly 40%. This followed another drop in sales the previous quarter and has led a few to question whether the company’s e-cig branch was worth the investment.

Lorillard bought its way into the e-cig market with its purchase of Blu eCigs in April of 2012 for $135 million. Blu was then arguably the biggest and most recognizable brand of electronic cigarettes on the market. It almost immediately began plunging millions into an aggressive advertising, marketing, and distribution strategy that landed Blus in almost every convenience store in the nation.

Granted, the company still pulled in $38 million in electronic cigarette sales during the third quarter of 2014, but the trend is definitely sending sales further downward.

There are a few reasons this could be going on. It’s like to be related to two major trends in the US vaping and e-cig market. First, it appears most e-cig users naturally progress to personal vaporizers and higher level equipment over small models (or simply start with the more powerful devices).

The second likely factor is that Lorillard’s role as a tobacco provider keeps many e-cigs users from purchasing Blus. There remains a good deal of distaste for tobacco companies. For Lorillard, it’s no different (especially given that they’re being purchased by Reynolds).

When the purchase of Lorillard by Reynolds was announced, some questioned Reynold’s decision to sell Blu (along with some other brands) to Imperial Tobacco. However, with sales plummeting as they have been, this decision shows some serious foresight.

You can read a bit on some analysts’ perspective on the company right here.