Nicotine Pouches are growing in popularity with more people now choosing to use them as their preferred method of getting their Nicotine fix once they have quit smoking. The usage rates globally has increased in the last few years, and also the global market value has increased significantly with a good growth projection within the decade also.
People have started noticing these trends and wanting to see what all the fuss is about, and this has increased the sales as well as the value, but it isn’t just consumers that are noticing things and getting involved, there’s another group getting involved and helping things grow in the right direction, and that is Big Tobacco companies by creating and marketing their own brands of Nicotine Pouches, and using their large presence and notoriety within the industry to make big brands that in turn drive sales.
In this article, I’m going to take a look what Big Tobacco companies are involved in the Nicotine Pouch trade, what brands they are behind and how the creation and promotion of these big brands have helped the Nicotine Pouch industry get to where it is currently and how it will continue to grow moving forward.
An Insight Into The History Of Nicotine Pouches
Nicotine Pouches were first introduced onto the consumer market in the mid 2000’s, with a company creating the first inception of them and marketing them as “Modern Oral Nicotine” products. The inspiration for Nicotine Pouches had been taken from Snus, the hugely popular oral tobacco products that originate from Sweden and are still used in high volumes by the patrons of Sweden and this is what has helped Sweden almost reach Smoke Free status with nearly less than 5% of their adult population being cigarette smokers.
And it wasn’t long before a Big Tobacco company started taking an interest in this novel idea that had appeared and grabbed a stronghold on it. Niconovum created their brand in 2008, creating and marketing Nicotine Pouches and it was the following year that RJ Reynolds (who are now known as British American Tobacco) bought Niconovum and this was the first time that a Big Tobacco company got involved with acquiring an established business within the Nicotine Pouch industry and it certainly wouldn’t be the last either.
Looking at the facts and figures to do with Global usage of Nicotine Pouches, it does still remain fairly low, with a 7% total use globally, but this is an increase from 4% which was recorded in 2019. This growth could be down to the fact that in 2019, Nicotine Pouches were introduced into the United Kingdom as well as Europe, and the brands that were introduced were Nordic Spirit and Lyft, which later was rebranded to VELO, both of these are backed by Big Tobacco companies (JTI and BAT respectively)
And it wasn’t just in Europe where Nicotine Pouches were introduced, as they entered the US Market also. And this is where the sales figures reach unforeseen heights, with it being reported that in 2019, 136 million units were sold in America and fast forward to 2022, and in the first quarter of the year alone, over 800 million units were sold which is an astronomical gain. This was widely down to specific brands of Nicotine Pouches being popular in the States, with the leading brand being acquired by Philip Morris International in 2022, let’s delve into this in more depth below
How Big Tobacco Creating or Acquiring Brands Helps Drive Figures Up
As mentioned, Big Tobacco getting involved within the Nicotine Pouch game has definitely contributed to the sales figures globally rising upwards, as well increasing the market worth to being over worth $1 Billion as of 2022.
The majority of Big Tobacco companies are getting involved with smoke free alternatives for Nicotine to encourage people to try them and move away from combustible tobacco products. Creating sustainable products like Nicotine Pouches and E-Cigarettes/E-Liquid means they are smoke free alternatives thus resulting in less harm to our environment by eliminating toxic cigarette smoke being emitted into the air and causing air pollution. These smoke free alternatives are also considerably safer for people to use also as they do not contain cancer causing chemicals like what combustible tobacco products do, so the more people using them will result in less smoking related deaths which is a huge number globally.
When RJ Reynolds took hold on Niconovum, they then took things to the next level for Nicotine Pouches as the company behind Niconovum was a small start up company with minimal assets compared to what RJ Reynolds had being a huge tycoon and one of the companies that make up the Big Tobacco moniker.
Mass production, advertising, promotion, and pushing products globally comes with ease for these Big Tobacco companies, after being well established within the tobacco industry, and are essentially a household name for people who smoke as chances are they are using a tobacco product by one of the five Big Tobacco companies.
Japan Tobacco International make Nordic Spirit Nicotine Pouches and these are one of the biggest selling brand of Nicotine Pouches in Europe and the UK, with them winning “Nicotine Pouch Product of the Year” for the last few years running. Japan Tobacco International produce some of the biggest tobacco brands in the world, so they know what they are doing when it comes to product creation, and it’s no exception clearly with their Nicotine Pouches.
I mentioned about Philip Morris International acquiring a Nicotine Pouch brand also which I’ll elaborate on now. In 2022, PMI made a move to acquire Swedish Match, a Nicotine Pouch manufacturer known for the brand Zyn Nicotine Pouches. These pouches already had a good sales rate in the USA, but with PMI getting involved and taking ownership of Swedish Match, the figures just grew even more and will continue to grow I think. This is down to PMI being, in my opinion, the most well known Big Tobacco brand, and their knowledge, experience, and power within the tobacco industry can easily translate over to the Nicotine Pouch industry and promote the use of Nicotine Pouches as they pledge to being committed to creating an arsenal of smoke free products to help reach the goal of a smoke free future for all.
That concludes my article on how Big Tobacco companies being involved with Nicotine Pouches has helped drive sales and market value up. It’s fascinating to see just how much difference one companies involvement can make, let alone 4 out of the 5 Big Tobacco brands being involved now within the Nicotine Pouch industry.
If you want to try Nicotine Pouches, Snusmail.co.uk stock a great range of Nicotine Pouches including Nordic Spirit. Check out the website and get your Nicotine Pouches delivered straight to your door!
