Heya folks - been tight-lipped long enough... deal is done so I am going to spill. Long post, so grab your favorite vape and prepare to nod frequently and say "that little devil!"
Lots of changes upcoming to our production process - but - we will be partnering with a 3rd party to manufacture our liquid. Why, you ask?
1) It's local (Omaha based)- I will have direct oversight over the entirety of the production process without having to devote inordinate amounts of time to managing it. I can delegate the "busywork" of making the liquid which allows us to focus on our core competencies (community building, sales & marketing, "customer" service). (notice "" around customer, you're not customers, you are family to us) No more ordering flavoring, base, bottles, labels, wholesale packaging materials, etc... all that will be delegated.
Let's face it - actually making the liquid is monotonous - it's the creative part of it (R&D) that I want to focus on - that - and the human element.
2) Integrity. I trust them. Good people, enough said.
3) Capital. Collectively, the scale we are going to be achieve would have been virtually impossible without significant capital investment. Our e-liquid will be made with a state of the art ISO 8 Class 10k clean-room with the ability to continue to upgrade it to ISO 6 Class 1k as required by governmental regulation. This means that your eliquid will be produced in an environment that rivals pharmaceutical grade environments - it provides a foundation upon which we can very rapidly pursue and obtain certification from the American eliquid Manufacturing Standards Association (AEMSA). Secondly, we are moving forward with implementation of CGMPs (Current Good Manufacturing Processes) that are presently mandated by the FDA in the areas of Food Safety and Manufacturing of Dietary Supplements. Finally, we will be perusing ISO 9000 family of certification (Quality Management). The moral of the story... we need capital to persist into the post-regulatory environment... worry about your favorite liquid disappearing no longer. This is the kind of thing that needs to be done NOW so we can make our case when the time comes - we intend to position ourselves as a responsible and competent vendor that’s EARNED the right to “make it over the regulatory bar.”
Economy of Scale: We will be using a state of the art bottling machine that allow us to produce 10-15x more bottles on a monthly basis as compared to what we are currently able to produce. This will allow us to aggressively hit the wholesale market with the 10 flavors listed below. This is where all of you fit in... We have reason to believe that at some point in the future online eLiquid sales will cease entirely. Timeline? I can only speculate, but 2-4 years… do it for the children, right? In the meantime we'll be selectively choosing "best fit" retailers to carry our products. We expect we will accept 1 out of every 5 interested parties - we're being extremely picky. This is where you come in... when the time is right, we will be relying on you to help us "sort the wheat from the chaff" and help us identify retailers in your local markets than embody the ideals that Nicoticket represents.
Unparalleled Product Consistency: Verification of all the constituent ingredients all the way to the manufacturing source. LARGE BATCHES and semi-automated mixing equipment significantly decreases the probability of human error. Documented good manufacturing processes that ensure every bottle is as close to being "exactly the same" as the previous bottle. I think we do a great job at this, now, but there is still significant room for improvement.
As has been eluded to previously, we are paring down the line-up to 10 flavors. The selection of these flavors was difficult because we have so many good candidates... we asked all of you (and others), did months and months of market testing, measured metrics like reorders, read tons and tons of reviews, etc...
You all knew these were in like flynn...
The Virus
Custard's Last Stand
Creme Brulee
Grandma's Cinnamon Danish
Betelgeuse
Gravity
...that's (6)... rounding out the (10)
Got Cookie?
Wakonda
Frenilla
Strawnilla
WHY?
Strawnilla should be obvious - I personally prefer it to the two strongest "Nesquik" contenders in the market - It's delicious.
Frenilla was a tough one because it's fairly close to CLS - but we felt like it was "different enough" considering it has a distinct absence of custard notes and it mixes well with everything. It’s the best “straight up vanilla sans custard” on the market – even if it is similar to CLS, it’s too good to let go.
Wakonda was a no brainer – mornings wouldn’t be the same without it.
Got Cookie was a tough one because personally, I don't enjoy it. That said, it mixes exceptionally well with the rest of the line-up (notable exception, the fruits), and stands on it's own two feet as one of (if not the best) chocolate vape on the market.
----------------------
What happens to the rest of the flavors?
At present - we're planning on laying off short-run flavors for a while... we have a transition ahead of us (moving to a new facility, totally transitioning to a new production process, ramping up wholesale)... BUT - once we get "settled" and get moving - our intent is to take all the rock-stars that are presently SRs and make them PERMANENT OFFERINGS ON THE WEBSITE ONLY. We will be rolling these out incrementally as time allows with the intention of retaining them as long as there is sufficient support in the community for a specific flavor. If you want it to stick around, it has to sell… we will have to periodically review what moves and what doesn’t – that’s just the nature of this business. (We don’t sit on liquid that doesn’t sell) We may also offer these to wholesalers as short-run time-limited offerings that will be revisited with some frequency.
Flavors that will be available on a permanent basis (eventually)
PBC v2
Hummingbird
Raz Cup
Doodle
NY, NY (Cheesecake)
Band Camp
ACB
Banana Pudding
Butterscotch Pudding
Grape Ape
Strawberry Symphony
Radioactive <<saved it for last just to torture Keith
I would qualify that it might be after the 1st of the year before we do another short-run... so if you like/love any of the above and it's presently available, grab it up!
Questions? Comments?
Lots of changes upcoming to our production process - but - we will be partnering with a 3rd party to manufacture our liquid. Why, you ask?
1) It's local (Omaha based)- I will have direct oversight over the entirety of the production process without having to devote inordinate amounts of time to managing it. I can delegate the "busywork" of making the liquid which allows us to focus on our core competencies (community building, sales & marketing, "customer" service). (notice "" around customer, you're not customers, you are family to us) No more ordering flavoring, base, bottles, labels, wholesale packaging materials, etc... all that will be delegated.
Let's face it - actually making the liquid is monotonous - it's the creative part of it (R&D) that I want to focus on - that - and the human element.2) Integrity. I trust them. Good people, enough said.
3) Capital. Collectively, the scale we are going to be achieve would have been virtually impossible without significant capital investment. Our e-liquid will be made with a state of the art ISO 8 Class 10k clean-room with the ability to continue to upgrade it to ISO 6 Class 1k as required by governmental regulation. This means that your eliquid will be produced in an environment that rivals pharmaceutical grade environments - it provides a foundation upon which we can very rapidly pursue and obtain certification from the American eliquid Manufacturing Standards Association (AEMSA). Secondly, we are moving forward with implementation of CGMPs (Current Good Manufacturing Processes) that are presently mandated by the FDA in the areas of Food Safety and Manufacturing of Dietary Supplements. Finally, we will be perusing ISO 9000 family of certification (Quality Management). The moral of the story... we need capital to persist into the post-regulatory environment... worry about your favorite liquid disappearing no longer. This is the kind of thing that needs to be done NOW so we can make our case when the time comes - we intend to position ourselves as a responsible and competent vendor that’s EARNED the right to “make it over the regulatory bar.”
Economy of Scale: We will be using a state of the art bottling machine that allow us to produce 10-15x more bottles on a monthly basis as compared to what we are currently able to produce. This will allow us to aggressively hit the wholesale market with the 10 flavors listed below. This is where all of you fit in... We have reason to believe that at some point in the future online eLiquid sales will cease entirely. Timeline? I can only speculate, but 2-4 years… do it for the children, right? In the meantime we'll be selectively choosing "best fit" retailers to carry our products. We expect we will accept 1 out of every 5 interested parties - we're being extremely picky. This is where you come in... when the time is right, we will be relying on you to help us "sort the wheat from the chaff" and help us identify retailers in your local markets than embody the ideals that Nicoticket represents.
Unparalleled Product Consistency: Verification of all the constituent ingredients all the way to the manufacturing source. LARGE BATCHES and semi-automated mixing equipment significantly decreases the probability of human error. Documented good manufacturing processes that ensure every bottle is as close to being "exactly the same" as the previous bottle. I think we do a great job at this, now, but there is still significant room for improvement.
As has been eluded to previously, we are paring down the line-up to 10 flavors. The selection of these flavors was difficult because we have so many good candidates... we asked all of you (and others), did months and months of market testing, measured metrics like reorders, read tons and tons of reviews, etc...
You all knew these were in like flynn...
The Virus
Custard's Last Stand
Creme Brulee
Grandma's Cinnamon Danish
Betelgeuse
Gravity
...that's (6)... rounding out the (10)
Got Cookie?
Wakonda
Frenilla
Strawnilla
WHY?
Strawnilla should be obvious - I personally prefer it to the two strongest "Nesquik" contenders in the market - It's delicious.
Frenilla was a tough one because it's fairly close to CLS - but we felt like it was "different enough" considering it has a distinct absence of custard notes and it mixes well with everything. It’s the best “straight up vanilla sans custard” on the market – even if it is similar to CLS, it’s too good to let go.
Wakonda was a no brainer – mornings wouldn’t be the same without it.
Got Cookie was a tough one because personally, I don't enjoy it. That said, it mixes exceptionally well with the rest of the line-up (notable exception, the fruits), and stands on it's own two feet as one of (if not the best) chocolate vape on the market.
----------------------
What happens to the rest of the flavors?
At present - we're planning on laying off short-run flavors for a while... we have a transition ahead of us (moving to a new facility, totally transitioning to a new production process, ramping up wholesale)... BUT - once we get "settled" and get moving - our intent is to take all the rock-stars that are presently SRs and make them PERMANENT OFFERINGS ON THE WEBSITE ONLY. We will be rolling these out incrementally as time allows with the intention of retaining them as long as there is sufficient support in the community for a specific flavor. If you want it to stick around, it has to sell… we will have to periodically review what moves and what doesn’t – that’s just the nature of this business. (We don’t sit on liquid that doesn’t sell) We may also offer these to wholesalers as short-run time-limited offerings that will be revisited with some frequency.
Flavors that will be available on a permanent basis (eventually)
PBC v2
Hummingbird
Raz Cup
Doodle
NY, NY (Cheesecake)
Band Camp
ACB
Banana Pudding
Butterscotch Pudding
Grape Ape
Strawberry Symphony
Radioactive <<saved it for last just to torture Keith
I would qualify that it might be after the 1st of the year before we do another short-run... so if you like/love any of the above and it's presently available, grab it up!
Questions? Comments?
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