Pivotal Year Swedish Match

Swedish Match reported sales of SEK14.74 billion ($1.53 billion) in 2019, up 14 percent over its 2018 sales. Fourth quarter sales increased 19 percent to SEK3.93 billion.

Operating profit was down 8 percent to SEK1.1 billion for the fourth quarter but was up 10 percent to SEK5.31 billion for the full year. Operating profit from product segments was up 22 percent to SEK1.53 billion for the fourth quarter and up 18 percent to SEK5.83 billion for the full year.

“In many respects, 2019 will stand out as a transformational year for Swedish Match—a year in which we not only delivered record sales and operating profit from product segments, but also where the company, aligned with our vision, established itself as the clear market leader for nicotine pouches in the United States and began offering nicotine pouches to markets outside of our core Scandinavian and U.S. markets,” said Lars Dahlgren, CEO of Swedish Match.

“The group’s outstanding financial performance in 2019 further reflects our commitment to our vision as the snus and moist snuff product segment accounted for essentially all of our growth in sales and operating profit from product segments in local currencies.”

In related news, Swedish Match announced it will increase production capacity for its tobacco-free nicotine pouch product, ZYN.

Swedish Match began rolling out ZYN across the U.S. last year, and the company recently decided to expand its U.S. plant. “Given the market success of ZYN, we have recently decided to once again expand capacity,” the company said in a statement. “The fourth phase, which is planned to be completed in 2022, will involve building expansion as well as processing and packaging lines that will increase annualized installed capacity to more than 200 million cans.”