Swedish Match will be showcasing its ZYN nicotine pouch brand at the forthcoming MEADFA Conference, with particular focus on its recently launched flavour Bellini. This joins ZYN’s core range of Cool Mint, Espressino, Citrus and Spearmint expressions. The company said it is targeting expansion in the Middle East market, with travel retail presenting a big opportunity, it said.
The company said that ZYN is poised for “rapid expansion” in travel retail after strong growth in domestic markets. This follows a strategy of focusing on reduced risk alternative products for over 20 years. As early as 1999 the company made a strategic choice to divest its cigarette arm to build its business around snus and smokeless alternatives.
At the heart of its offer is ZYN, one of several Swedish Match nicotine pouch brands. The company noted: “In 2016, when Swedish Match began expanding the availability of ZYN nicotine pouches in the US, the brand was available in approximately 4,000 stores in the western United States. By the end of 2020, ZYN was available in about 100,000 stores, making it the clear market leader for nicotine pouches in the US, which is the world’s largest nicotine pouch market.
“Now Swedish Match is ready to leverage its long and successful history as a producer of leading oral nicotine products to enhance to tobacco offer in travel retail and craft a lucrative opportunity for travel retail and duty free partners.”
Swedish Match Manager Travel Retail Johannes Varhelyi said: “Nicotine pouches are the perfect addition to any retailer’s duty free tobacco offer. Far from cannibalising sales, this innovative young category in the travel retail sphere can provide incremental growth within the sector.
“In recent years the tobacco sector has become increasingly complex, with big brands seeking to match more varied demands from consumers. Swedish Match is already an established leader in the provision of smokeless tobacco and nicotine pouches and we look forward to sharing that expertise with the wider global travel retail market.”
Sales volume grew by +220% in the past year and is predicted to increase seven times in the next four years, from 3 million cans in 2021 to 23 million in 2025, said the company.
Swedish Match is predicting similar growth for the travel retail sector, sayig that “the smokeless category is perfectly tailored for the demands of the modern travelling tobacco customer. Traditional tobacco shoppers can buy nicotine pouches to use on the plane or in airports, where they struggle to smoke otherwise, thereby creating incremental sales without cannibalising purchases of traditional tobacco products”.
A presence in the UAE will kickstart its plans for expansion in the Middle East, it said.
Varhelyi said: “We at Swedish Match are dedicated to championing and leading the smokeless sector and helping to build and expand this as a new category in travel retail and duty free, beginning in the UAE. We look forward to seeing you at the MEADFA Conference and sharing our vision with you.”
