If We Want to Build a Smoke-Free Saudi Arabia, We Must Work Together.
Tolga Sezer, Chief Executive Officer for Badael – a PIF Company – discusses how the company behind the DZRT nicotine pouches, is set to launch their ‘Clear the Air’ campaign – an initiative calling upon individuals, organizations, and government entities to unite in creating a smoke-free Saudi Arabia. The launch coincides with World No Tobacco Day on 31 May, and marks Badael’s first anniversary.
With its rich cultural heritage, thriving economy and countless areas of outstanding natural beauty, I believe Saudi Arabia is one of the greatest places on earth to live. However, the Kingdom has a problem: a high prevalence of smoking among its population. Riyadh-headquartered Badael, was established one year ago on World No Tobacco Day, to tackle this very issue. As the company behind the nicotine pouch brand DZRT, our team has spent the past 12 months providing an effective and convenient alternative for smokers who wish to quit smoking and enhance their quality of life.
So, what impact has Badael made so far? The company has helped around three hundred thousand people locally transition from tobacco, a true testament to Badael’s commitment to public health.
During the first year of operations, the company made significant progress as we rapidly upscaled our world-class manufacturing facilities in Saudi Arabia, in response to surging sales of DZRT nicotine pouches. With innovation at the core of our identity, we invested heavily in research and development, and innovation, to enhance our product offering.
December 2023 saw the company bolster our distribution network, strategically opening new retail outlets and elevating its retail footprint and Point of Sales locations across the kingdom. Over the course of the year, we diversified existing online distribution channels, and have now surpassed one million e-commerce orders since we began.
These incredible achievements underscore Badael’s steadfast dedication to its vision and exemplify our commitment to future expansion and innovation as a way of moving us closer to realizing our important goals, and our ambitions as a regional leader in providing smoke-free alternatives expands beyond the remits and boundaries of Saudi Arabia.
Thanks to our ongoing strategic investments in manufacturing and distribution, Badael is ideally placed to keep pace with the increasing popularity of DZRT, the tobacco-free nicotine pouches throughout the second half of 2024 and beyond. My colleagues and I remain fully committed to the creation of a smoke-free Saudi Arabia, and I have no doubt that our second year of operations will prove even more successful than our first.
Even so, we cannot afford to become complacent. It is vital for Badael to maintain its momentum, which is why my colleagues and I have set ourselves the ambitious goal of supporting the smoking cessation journeys of one million Saudis by 2028. Achieving this target is contributing to the public health and quality of life goals set out in Saudi Vision 2030.
To this end, Badael has today launched ‘Clear the Air’, an initiative designed to coincide with World No Tobacco Day on 31 May 2024 – our company’s first anniversary. This campaign which spans social and traditional media, is shining the spotlight on the benefits of quitting, and encouraging people across Saudi Arabia to move away from smoking.
As part of the ‘Clear the Air’ campaign, Badael is inviting individuals, corporations, and government bodies to support the cause, and sign the pledge here for a smoke-free Saudi Arabia. The pledge has the objectives of raising awareness about the dangers of smoking, supporting quitters, protecting youth, promoting clean air, and safeguarding the environment. Through our collective efforts, I am convinced we can address the high smoking rates in the Kingdom and ultimately improve the overall well-being of Saudi society. We want everybody to come together, so we can make a real difference. We are already working with a selection of commercial partners to help reduce the prevalence of smoking in the local workforce, and we intend to further strengthen this network over the coming months and years by encouraging employees to adopt less harmful, reduced-risk alternatives if they are unable to quit. We have had significant levels of engagement from the public sector during our first year of operations, and our team is now looking to partner with even more government entities to help turn our vision of a smoke-free Saudi Arabia into reality. I am incredibly proud of everything Badael has achieved over the past year, but I’m also a realist. I understand that it will not be possible for Badael to drive widespread smoking cessation in Saudi Arabia unilaterally. We need to work closely with partners from industry and government, as well as members of the public, to achieve our goals. Put simply, we need your help. Realizing our shared vision won’t be easy, but I guarantee it will be worth the effort. Why? Because every single person who quits smoking – whether with the help of DZRT nicotine pouches or through a different approach, will drastically improve their quality of life. So, if you are as passionate as we are about ending the harmful impact that smoking is having on you, your loved ones, or the community at large, please sign the pledge, join the cause and support Badael’s vision for a smoke-free future.
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