Source: PRESS RELEASE, 5/23/14
 
More than 200 full-time manufacturing jobs will be created in Tobaccoville, N.C., over the next four years by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company as it begins production of VUSE digital vapor cigarettes for R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company under a services agreement between the two companies.

A multi-million dollar investment will also be made for high-speed, next-generation e-cigarette manufacturing equipment at R.J. Reynolds’ Tobaccoville manufacturing complex. 

“VUSE is a game-changing product and a tangible demonstration of our companies’ mission to transform the tobacco industry,” said Susan M. Cameron, president and chief executive officer of Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI), the parent company of both R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company. “We need additional production capacity for VUSE to support the national roll-out of the brand, and the highly trained workforce here in our home state of North Carolina made it the perfect choice for our expansion location,” Cameron said. 

Cameron said that VUSE is the top-selling vapor cigarette in Colorado and Utah, the two states in which it has broad distribution and full marketing support. A national roll-out of VUSE will begin this summer.
“If our past successes in converting smokers to VUSE are any indication of our future response from adult tobacco consumers nationwide, we’ll need new-generation, high-speed equipment and a larger workforce to support market demand,” Cameron said. 

Hiring for the new full-time manufacturing positions, which will pay, on average, more than $40,000 a year, will begin this summer and extend over the next four years. Installation of the new-generation equipment will begin this summer.

Currently, production f VUSE cartridges and other components is done for R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. at a contractor’s facility in Kansas. Cameron said that both the existing facility and the new equipment will be needed for the foreseeable future to meet anticipated market demand for VUSE.