Skruf Snus Launches Xtra Stark snus in Sweden

Written by SnusCENTRAL Wire Services Wednesday, 03 November 2010 19:07

Stockholm - The Swedish snus challenger Skruf Snus AB increases its range with the launch of Skruf Xtra Stark portion in Sweden. The snus - that is the strongest amongst the company's products - contains more nicotine than most regular snus and targets consumers who want a stronger snus experience. Skruf Xtra Stark will initially only be sold in limited quantities at selected stores.

“With Skruf Xtra Stark, we are further expanding our Skruf family with a product designed for consumers who look for a stronger snus experience" says Nils Fehren, Marketing Manager at Skruf.

Skruf Xtra Stark was launched in the Norwegian market in the spring of 2009 and quickly became a success, now accounting for 3.9 % of the total Norwegian snus market. .

After the success of the product in Norway, many Swedish retailers and consumers asked when Skruf Xtra Stark will be available in Sweden.

“The launch of Skruf Xtra Stark in Sweden is a direct response to the significant demand from our consumers and customers and it feels great to be able to offer our Swedish Ambassador stores a product that has become so popular so quickly in Norway” says Stephan Stock, Sales Manager at Skruf.

Larry Waters of SnusCENTRAL.org sees the launch of Skruf Xtra Stark portion snus in Sweden as a significant one.

"To date, the high nicotine strong snus products have been driven by Norway and American snus users. The fact that Swedish consumers demand for extra strong snus in Sweden now exists is a change in profile of Swedish snusers."

Waters continued "Sweden already has the lowest rate of cigarette use in the world at 11%. I'd like to see how much lower that number is a year from now."

Will Swedish Match AB and other Swedish snus makers follow Skruf's lead? Waters believes they will, sooner than later, once Swedish public reaction and sales of Xtra Stark Portion can be judged. "General Ekstra Sterk Portion snus can become General Extra Stark Portion snus by just changing the labels."

Skruf AB's normal range of products in Sweden includes Skruf Original portion, Stark portion, Stark White, Stark lös and Skruf Tranbär portion. It is worth noting that Skruf Xtra Stark lös was not mentioned as being released in Sweden; just the portion version. At least, not yet.

SnusCENTRAL Wire Services

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Andrew Romeo makes this comment

Wednesday, 03 November 2010

Being a skeptic, Imperial's mumbo-jumbo announcement about "ambassador stores" means they are going to flood the border shops so that Norwegians can buy the product cheaper than they can in Norway (30% of all Norwegian tobacco consumption comes from these Swedish shops).

Don't forget that any talk of "success in Norway" is pretty much fluff. In-market sales are at 20m cans, which is less than 1/10th the Swsdish volume. After Swedish Match, which is almost 70% of the market, Skruf is the only brand to make any kind of impact there.

The Imperial branch, a purchased local distributor called 'Gunnar Stenberg' has worked quite hard to achieve its 10% or so share, but the volume is insignificant vis-a-vis its impact on the Northern Europe P&L, I'd reckon.. Opening up the Swedish border shops to Skruf ES will be a true test of Norwegians' tastes.