About us
We sell nicotine, so we take it seriously.
VapePuffs is independent, Manchester-based and thirty-eight people strong. Most of our customers came to us trying to stop smoking, which sets a fairly high bar for getting the advice right.
Why we started
Because the numbers on the box were not true.
Two of us started this after buying a batch of disposables advertised at eight thousand puffs and getting closer to five. That is not a rounding error, it is a thirty-eight per cent overstatement, and at the time nobody in the industry seemed especially bothered about it.
So we bought a puff machine. Since 2021 every disposable on this site has been measured on three units drawn at random from our own received stock, at a three-second draw, with the lowest result rounded down. Sometimes our figure matches the manufacturer’s. Often it does not, and we publish ours anyway.
The same principle runs through the rest of it: batch codes that resolve to a real lab report, coils bought through authorised distribution with the paperwork on file, and a support team measured on whether the problem got solved rather than how quickly the call ended.
How we got here
Seven years, in five steps
2019
A market stall and 40 SKUs
Two of us, a folding table in Manchester, and a spreadsheet of forty products. We sold out on the second Saturday and spent the profit on more stock.
2021
The puff machine
We bought a puff machine because a supplier's 8,000-puff claim did not survive contact with reality. We have measured every disposable ourselves since.
2023
Batch codes on every bottle
Every liquid we sell now carries a code on the neck label that resolves to its own lab report. It cost us two suppliers who would not provide the paperwork.
2024
The Harris Street unit
We moved into our own fulfilment unit in Manchester and brought picking in-house. Same-day dispatch before 15:00 started that month and has not slipped since.
2026
Thirty-eight people
A four-day week, equity for everyone, and a customer base of just over thirty-one thousand people who mostly used to smoke.
How we work
Four things we will not trade away
These came out of a workshop that took three hours and produced one genuine argument, which we take as a good sign.
Say the actual number
If a disposable does 6,200 puffs, we do not print 8,000 on the box. This applies internally too — no rounded-up roadmaps, no optimistic dates.
The customer is often mid-quit
A large share of the people we serve are trying to stop smoking. That raises the stakes on getting the advice right and rules out a few easy revenue tricks.
Small team, real ownership
Thirty-eight people. Nobody's job is to shepherd someone else's work through a process. If you own it, you decide it.
Disagree in the room
We would rather have the argument before we ship than the post-mortem after. Bring the objection while it can still change something.
The team
Who you are actually dealing with
Ines Karlsen
Chief Operating Officer
Fifteen years in retail operations. Owns compliance, buying and the argument about what we will not stock.
Priya Raghavan
Head of Engineering
Built and still owns the storefront. Writes the code and answers the tickets when it breaks.
Hannah Doyle
Head of Customer Experience
Has personally handled several thousand switching conversations. Wrote most of our guides.
Dev Sharma
Operations Manager
Runs the unit and the retail shop. The reason the 15:00 cut-off is a promise rather than a hope.
Where we are
One unit, one shop, one phone number.
Everything ships from our own unit in Manchester — no drop-shipping, no third-party fulfilment, no mystery about where your parcel actually comes from. Our retail shop is a short walk away in the Northern Quarter.
Head office & fulfilment
Subunit 5, 10-16 Harris StCheetham Hill
Manchester M8 8EG
United Kingdom
- Phone
- 07448 433049
- Company no.
- 11482093
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