New Innovation Centre in Southampton

The new Innovation Centre will play a pivotal role in the advancement of BAT’s smokeless products – and build capabilities beyond nicotine. Bringing together 400 highly-specialised engineers and scientists, working across nine technical spaces and labs, to realise our ambition of becoming a predominantly smokeless business by 2035.

The £30million facility strengthens BAT’s capabilities for device prototyping and the development of consumables. The investment will also support the improvement of our product packaging and the development of wellbeing and stimulation products.

Over the past decade, BAT has built three global brands of smokeless products: Vuse (vapour products), glo (tobacco heating products) and Velo (nicotine pouches).  These products do not involve the combustion of tobacco.  Due to the absence of combustion, these products deliver substantially (>90-99%) ¹ reduced levels of toxic chemicals that are associated with smoking related diseases.  We have 22.5million consumers of our smokeless products, and our goal is to reach 50 million by 2030.

Consumer choice is driving this transformation. Smokers are more likely to switch to a product that delivers comparable satisfaction. That is why we are obsessed with innovation and invest £300 million a year in the development of our smokeless products. The Innovation Centre in Southampton will collaborate with BAT’s Innovation Centres in Shenzhen and Trieste to anticipate and meet the needs of consumers through science, technology and innovation.

Dr James Murphy, Director, Research and Science at BAT, said:

“The opening of this new facility marks an important milestone in BAT’s transformation and will play a key role in making a smokeless future a reality. Evidence provided by objective world-class science is essential to facilitate the migration of adult smokers to smokeless products and support public health objectives. The investment in our Innovation Centre will support the cutting-edge research and product development efforts of our global R&D team for many years to come.”

BAT’s site in Southampton has been the home its R&D operations since 1956. Working to understand tobacco science and the health risk associated with smoking to support the development of less risky*† alternatives. This work has generated over 200 of peer-reviewed scientific publications and the filing of thousands of patents.

The new Innovation Centre is the latest example of BAT’s commitment to invest in the highest standards of scientific research and product development to support its ambition to reduce the health impact of its business and deliver A Better Tomorrow™.

BAT’s refined strategy has committed the company to ‘Building a Smokeless World’ and becoming a predominately smokeless business, with 50% of revenue generated from smokeless products by 2035. Rigorous science is central to this aim and underpins the advancement of Tobacco Harm Reduction – which BAT believes is the greatest public health opportunity.