Oral Nicotine Pouches sales on the rise globally

 Oral Nicotine Pouch use has increased significantly in the last 12/18 months, even though they have been around on the consumer market since 2019. More people are opting to make the switch from smoking and using Oral Nicotine as their preferred method of Nicotine Replacement Therapy rather than using more conventional methods like Patches or Gum, or an E-Cigarette.

Figures showing the market growth of Nicotine Pouches have started to emerge, and in this article, I’m going to take a look at these facts and figures to give you an insight of just how much the market of Oral Nicotine is growing, and why people are opting to reach for a Nicotine Pouch rather than anything else to get their Nicotine fix.

The Introduction of Nicotine Pouches

Nicotine Pouches were designed and invented stemming from the concept of what Snus pouches are. Snus pouches have been around since the early 18^th Century when the first version was created in Sweden when farmers mixed tobacco leaves with salt and water thus creating the first version of Snus.

The idea of these was then taken and adapted and this is how Nicotine Pouches were created. They were, and still are very popular in Sweden, which is their country of origin, but around 2019 it was when they first broke out onto the international markets, most notably the USA and the UK.

Snus is still sold in the USA, but it was banned entirely from sale in the European Union and the UK way back in the 1990s, so when Nicotine Pouches hit the UK, it was something that many had not seen the concept before, with many being uncertain about the idea of oral nicotine pouches being a safe option to use for their Nicotine replacement.

But as the years have passed, more education and information about the benefits of Nicotine Pouches has been released and people are starting to have a more sound understanding of the safety of these white pouches, and in turn it has resulted in sales growing considerably year on year.

Global smoking rates have dropped

Of course, an increase in usage of alternative nicotine products must mean that people are quitting smoking as opting for a safer option to get their nicotine fix right? Exactly right!

The Tobacco Atlas Report is a report that is released every year which looks at the smoking behaviours and usage of adults across the globe. They also take a look at the other variables related to smoking around the world like tax rates as well as the usage of non-combustible tobacco products that are used in place of smoking tobacco.

The Tobacco Atlas Report that was released last year was the 7^th edition of the report, and out of all the previous reports, this one was the first report that showed that global smoking rates had decreased for the first time ever which is absolutely brilliant to see. However, the report states that over 1.3 billion adults are still smoking globally.

The report also goes on to talk about the increase in the rate of usage of “Non-Combustible” nicotine products over the last 10 years, with E-Cigarettes seeing a large increase in usage, as well as Nicotine Pouches.

Oral Nicotine sees a rise in retail sales

As I’ve said, the popularity of Nicotine Pouches has grown significantly over the last few years since 2019, and it was in 2022 that the figures hit an all time high, and also came with an accolade to be proud of.

A report conducted by the Management Science Associates, who are a company based in the USA focused on analytics and informatics. In this report, MSA took a deep look into the wholesale to retail shipment data regarding Nicotine Pouches which showed some interesting facts and figures.

MSA tracked modern oral’s growth levels in 2021 at nearly 80 percent which is absolutely astounding considering from what it grew from. And the accolade it held from this is the fact it held the strongest growth within the tobacco company for that year. And the experts say that even though the growth will likely come down to nearly half, it will still be the strongest grower within the 2022. This is because most convenience stores and also tobacco outlets have added selling Nicotine Pouches to their arsenal of stock.

Nicotine Pouch sales go up and Tobacco sales go down

Although distribution of Nicotine Pouches is not of a high volume in the USA, MSA reports strong “same-store sales” which means that stores that have consistently sold modern oral nicotine products for the last 18 months saw a rise of 18% in sales growth during the first half of 2022, compared to what it was in 2021. Which shows that whilst many stores are not stocking Nicotine Pouches, the ones that do are proving to have a strong repeat purchase level, with more people are accepting this newfound Nicotine replacement as a valid option when quitting smoking.

Goldman Sachs conducts surveys every quarter called Nicotine Nuggets, which is a survey that represents around 45,000 retail locations across the United States. And in the second quarter survey, there was a large amount of optimism expressed by retailers and wholesalers for modern oral nicotine products, and the common belief amongst this group was that robust growth rates will likely continue, which in turn is offsetting the declines that they are experiencing in other traditional categories such as moist tobacco, and even stemming right over to the traditional tobacco market. Some retailers even admitted they are experiencing “all time high” sales of cans of Oral Nicotine products, which is really good to see.

It’s also suggested that the pandemic played a part in customers of these stores wanting to experiment with different forms of Nicotine replacement, after it was wildly believed that smoking could affect people more if they suffered from Covid-19 and the after effects of it, with oral nicotine becoming the preferred method and front runner by many customers.

Are Nicotine Pouches the future of alternative Nicotine?

Looking at the facts and figures above, I really believe that Nicotine Pouches are the future of alternative Nicotine products.

The market sales in the USA reaching almost an 80% growth, near enough out of nowhere, is enough indication to show just how much people are trusting they are a safe option to use to help them quit smoking but also still get their nicotine fix.

Whilst the growth of sales isn’t quite to the same standard here in the UK, I believe that this year will see a rise in the right direction for the sale of Nicotine Pouches. With nearly all major supermarkets in the UK now stocking Nicotine Pouches, there’s no reason why the market sales will not grow going forward and it will be very interesting to see where it goes from here.