WITH new 'vaping' laws introduced in a bid to clamp down on the previously unregulated sale of electronic cigarettes, one Oxfordshire vaping entrepreneur and business owner says it is time to embrace the change.

Yarnton man Dan Greenall, 21, launched his own company Oxford Vapours Ltd in 2012, and now has three e-cigarette stores across the county.

He told Oxford Mail that new legislation regulating the sale of e-cigarettes to come into effect on May 20 was 'a great step' for both the industry and for the consumer.

He said: "In my personal opinion I think a change in the law was a necessity and it is a positive step for the consumer.

"A lot of people are over-consuming and the new legislation should get people to realise it is a smoking alternative. It is still enjoyable but regulation is a necessity."

The use e-cigarettes, known as vaping, has become a popular alternative to smoking, and research from Public Health England last year found the practice to be 'about 95 per cent' less harmful than smoking tobacco.

Under the new laws, which came into effect this month, maximum refill containers cannot exceed 10ml and nicotine strength cannot exceed 20mg.

The capacity of the 'tank' must also not exceed 2ml and a number of packaging requirements and customer notifications must now be displayed on products.

The changes are expected to prove more costly for businesses largely through an increase in packaging.

Speaking of the change Mr Greenall warned, however, that despite the positive move a black market industry was likely to take the place of the previously unregulated boom enjoyed by the first e-cigarette sellers.

He said: "I think there is going to be a massive industry that will go black market and there will be people going to these shops for what they had before.

"The industry has really grown since 2015 and since the NHS guidelines on e-cigarettes. We were the only e-cigarette specialists here at first and people have since jumped on the bandwagon.

"When it first started this was the only new industry in the world with no regulation and it is a drug based industry and it should be treated in the same way."

An entrepreneur since his first foray into the business world selling confectionary at school when he was just 13, Mr Greenall enrolled on a Peter Jones entrepreneurship course on leaving school, which led him to open up a stand at Templars Square with franchise, Vaper Trails of Oxford, in November 2012.

After four months, Mr Greenall and his dad Phillip Shulman opened up their own e-cigarette shop in Corn Street, Witney before expanding to London Road, Headington and Stert Street, Abingdon.

The business also launched the world’s first vaping delivery service in the Cowley area.

He said that his company was prepared for the change in legislation and he was ready to face the new challenge but that others were not so willing to embrace it.

He added: "Already over the past two or three months we have made sure we are ready for the change.

"We have been doing these preparations for the past four months but a lot of other companies they are in disbelief or are saying that when we go out of the EU it will go to an unregulated market which I think is just a ludicrous argument.

"It is a massive change, to lose some of the convenience, and we are doing all we can for customers."

Asked about the company's future plans, he said that he had his eye on international markets and that although he had no plans to expand locally an expansion abroad could not be ruled out.