Fredric Corneliusson stumbled into vejpning through the back door.
The dandelion child from Frölunda, Sweden, sees himself more as an entrepreneur who happened to be in an exciting industry - than a direct activist for vejpning and e-cigarettes.
Nevertheless, he owns Gothenburg's hottest gun shop and sells e-juice as if he had never done anything else.
Fredrik welcomes you to the Arcane Vape shop in the middle of Andra Långgatan in Gothenburg. For the uninitiated, this street has long been the city's most popular pub oasis, at least if you're looking for less glitz and tourism than what Avenyn on the other side of the city centre has to offer. His road here is long and a bit winding, so we'll take a few well-chosen shots at it to describe how it happened.
- I guess I'm a dandelion child from the suburbs from the start. Frölunda. Actually, I've only worked hard since the age of 16 and tried to find something that I think is fun to do," says Fredric as we leave Arcane's shop area and move "backstage" where there is a warehouse, juice laboratory and a little more.
Bought the company he worked for
How "fun" it is with toilet paper, detergent and other household items can be a matter of taste - but "Najad AB" as Fredric's company is called, actually sells these household items from the beginning.
- I was first employed by Najad in 2003. By Kalle here who works as a store manager now. But then, in 2009, they took a course. Then I bought the bankruptcy and drove on from there, and have been driving it ever since.
It was through a salesman at that company that Fredric came across vejpning around eight or nine years later.
- He was one of our telemarketers, but he made his own juices, and I thought, what the hell is this? It's a cool little gadget. This tastes good and should be sellable! So that guy went from selling detergents to making juices. Then we quickly got onto the shelves at Cigge, Lyf and a few other stores," Fredric continues.
Opened with a different approach
That brand was called SteamQuest, but to avoid some hassle and conflict, we'll just say that they opened the store on Andra Långgatan in 2020. But then business was really bad. A rent of 35,000 and revenues that were not nearly as large as they needed to be, resulted in substantial deficits. The solution was a restructuring of the company and a totally different approach to what a vejp store can and should be.
- We weren't vejp geeks ourselves and saw it from a different angle. Back then, the whole industry was filled with flavours like "Super Milky Panther blah blah blah" and everything was craft down to the smallest level. We wanted to strip all that away and make it smooth, simple and have pure flavours. Like the strawberry of the Vejpgubben," says Fredrik.
What the common man likes
Vejpgubben is now the company's own juice brand. But right then and there, the Najad businessmen had a vejp store and their own juice production without having any idea how to go about it.
- But Kalle, my store manager, turned out to be absolutely fantastic. We were quite nervous at first - because it's one thing to see a recipe and follow it, but then it turned out that it takes a certain sense of taste and smell to be able to test and see what will work. In some weird way, Kalle and I have just managed to be people who can produce good juices that people like. That the common masses like. But I think it has to do with the fact that we are ordinary, simple people who want something that suits us.
From 22 000 to 300 000
They launched with a series of 48 pure fruit and berry flavours. And it turns out that they weren't the only ones who wanted "simple" flavours that didn't have to have a name that reminded them of the final boss in a video game.
Just like that, the company Najad AB found itself on the playing field for household goods, vejp, and a little else for that matter. Vapes and wipes in a wonderfully odd combo.
- Haha, yes but exactly. Vapes, wipes and botox. We're a construction company, we do e-cigarettes, we have aesthetics. It's all perfect. But we've struggled, struggled and struggled to turn around how badly things went here in the beginning. In the first few months, we had an average monthly cash flow of 22,000, which was far from rent, salaries and purchases. From the first month when we took over ourselves, we sold for 30,000. Second month 39,000, third month 52,000 and so on. Now we are at 300,000. So it's been really fun.
Wanted to keep it "old school"
Fredric makes an educated guess that success has a lot to do with customer reception, and that the vejp customer base has undergone significant changes in recent years.
- I don't want to step on people's toes, but when this industry was run by these super1TP8 geeks, who are sort of experts in everything, I think it was off-putting to a lot of people. We started to notice that people had thought it was a motorbike club or something they stumbled into when they came in. We quickly realised, when we restarted, that the overwhelming majority of our customers were women between the ages of 32 and 48, and they're not that interested in what kind of engine and chip is in a vejp. They don't give a damn. Is it simple, is it light, does it taste good, does it feel good and so on. We wanted it to be simple.
From cigarette to vejpning
Fredric himself started smoking at the age of 11.
- You were stupid and wanted to be cool and like the big boys. Then you have to learn to smoke. Then I smoked until 2014 and had some help from vejp when I quit. I was then completely nicotine free for six years. When I took over the shop here, there were really two things that made me start vejpa; firstly, we were a struggling business that would survive for maybe six months at most. The stress was huge and we were open nine to nine. So I needed that calming effect. I also wanted to know exactly what the product tasted like and what I could recommend to customers.
Health aspects and no mantra
However, he says he will never light a cigarette again.
- No, that will never, ever happen. Now I have such insight into the health aspects too. When we started, it was a bit of a mantra, that e-cigarettes are so much more harmless. But with time and experience, you realise that this is not just a mantra. We have customers who come in once a month, year after year, and still feel overjoyed that they haven't had a puff since they started with vejp. And how much better they feel."
"Obviously it is better"
Fredric makes no bones about the fact that there are some things that are not fully understood about vejp - but it's pretty obvious that it's a hell of a lot better than cigarettes.
- We still don't know what happens when you have vejpat for 50 years. But what we do know is that after 3-5, even up to 10 years now, we see that people still feel so much better. I'm sure it has some impact and really you just need air in your lungs. But as I said - customers here who go from a packet of cigarettes a day and manage to switch to vejp. They feel completely saved." says Fredric Corneliusson.
Five quick ones for Fredric Corneliusson
Who is your typical customer?
Female between 32 and 48 approximately
How big is vape in Gothenburg?
Wow, what a difficult question. It's all over the place at this address, of course. But I don't get out much so I have no idea how common it is. Smokers, on the other hand, are not seen as often anymore. They've disappeared.
What is your own favourite flavour?
- Vapegummi's lemon cake.
What would you never put in the tank yourself?
-Grape. Funnily enough, grape was my first own juice, which started the whole Vapegubbens. But I can't stand it myself.
What made you start vejpa
- Combination of having been a smoker, stress relief and wanting to control the "product".
