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Sweetch is 10 years old, and we're celebrating !
Sweetch is now one of the vape leaders in French-speaking Switzerland.
Here's a look back at a success story that has helped many smokers quit smoking for good.
SWEETCH'S BEGINNING
It's 2013, and the electronic cigarette is a recent phenomenon that's starting to develop in some European countries, but it's still an unknown market in Switzerland.
Sweetch owes its existence to the tenacity of a visionary woman : Isabelle Pasini.
At the time, Isabelle was living in Belgium and discovered electronic cigarettes as part of her efforts to quit smoking. After many unsuccessful attempts to give up smoking using the methods available at the time, she finally found a sustainable support tool that worked. However, when she returned to Switzerland, she found herself faced with the challenge of following through her withdrawal in a country where vaping opportunities were not yet developed.
With her entrepreneurial spirit, Isabelle quickly grasped the potential of e-cigarettes to help Swiss smokers quit. And she decided to make it her cause by creating Sweetch.
As soon as it was imagined, it began, with a business plan ready in summer 2013. The Sweetch adventure began in 2014 with the opening of 3 shops in Lausanne, Geneva Dancet and Nyon La Combe.
SWEETCH'S DEVELOPMENT
In 2014, vaping emerged as a booming phenomenon, appealing to many smokers looking for a healthier lifestyle.
With a dazzling start, our young company opened a fourth shop in Geneva, on rue de Chantepoulet, but it unfortunately struggled to establish itself. The Nyon shop was also behind schedule, due to the constraints associated with its location in a shopping centre, where it is forbidden to test products indoors. Not easy to ask customers to go out into the street to test an e-liquid.
Faced with these challenges, Isabelle decided to part ways with the two least successful shops : Geneva Chantepoulet and Nyon La Combe.
In 2015, Sweetch took off again, leading to the opening of two new shops in 2018 : Nyon Centre and Neuchâtel. The following year, we also welcomed our first franchised shop in Geneva, on rue des Eaux-Vives.
Life was looking good for Sweetch, which was enjoying one success after another despite the emergence of numerous competitors.
But the first clouds appeared at the end of 2019 with the EVALI crisis in the United States. The US health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), conducted an in-depth investigation that uncovered the presence of vitamin E acetate in vape products purchased on the black market.
This malpractice tarnished the image of the entire vape industry and undermined the confidence of users and potential customers.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic turned our lives upside down and Sweetch had to temporarily close its shops, like all retailers in Switzerland.
The complete confinement of China and the shutdown of factories transformed the vape sector's supply.
Fortunately, vapers were still able to shop online. The fact that vape shops were considered basic necessities was good news, allowing Sweetch to welcome its customers in person once again.
Like most companies, Sweetch decided to take a step back following Covid and slow down its development. The years 2021 and 2022 were recovery periods during which Sweetch was able to look to the future with serenity.
It was therefore only logical that Sweetch resumed its development in 2023 with the launch of a brand new website offering numerous benefits for customers, both in-store and online.
In summer 2023, a brand new Sweetch shop opened in Geneva, this time in the Cornavin train station area, next to the Pâquis district.
SWEETCH'S VALUES
From the beginning, Sweetch has been committed to helping smokers who want to quit their smoking habits. That's why Isabelle wanted to set up shops throughout French-speaking Switzerland, and not just an online sales site. We understand that all smokers are different : from the occasional smoker to the very heavy smoker, profiles and therefore needs vary.
At Sweetch, we focus on personalised in-store advice. Customers who want to quit smoking with an electronic cigarette are discovering a new vape world that they don't yet understand. We're here to guide them. It all starts with a precise diagnosis of their smoking profile and nicotine needs, because there can be no lasting success in quitting smoking without a suitable nicotine transition. On the basis of this profile, our advisers can suggest the most suitable device for each customer and explain how their withdrawal will progress over time.
Our mission is to help our customers achieve their health goals by helping them to quit smoking.
That's why we're very demanding when recruiting our shop staff. We're not just looking for salespeople, but vape experts, former smokers themselves, who have gone through the same withdrawal process as our customers.
We also pay close attention to the quality and traceability of the products we offer, so that we can select the best support tools for our customers.
SWEETCH'S FUTURE
In order to continue its mission to help the fight against smoking, Sweetch will continue to establish itself in other towns and cities in French-speaking Switzerland, to reach even more smokers whom we can help to quit.
New legislation regulating vape products will soon come into force, and we're actively preparing for it to guarantee our customers ever-higher quality and sustainability. With this in mind, we are expanding our product range every month with more natural and environmentally-friendly alternatives.
In conclusion, we would like to express our deep gratitude to you, our customers, for these 10 years of loyalty. Your continued support drives us to strive for excellence day after day !
Thank you for reading.
The Sweetch team
