Where is ZYN Made? Explained!

ZYN is a nicotine pouch brand that doesn’t need much introduction. It is one of the oldest brands of nicotine pouches on the market and it is also one of the oldest.

One interesting question that you may be curious about is where ZYN nicotine pouches are manufactured.

Today, there is an endless selection of nicotine pouch manufacturers all over the world and the number only continues to increase. That said, the places where each individual brand makes its nicotine pouches vary. But let’s begin by looking closer at ZYN specifically.

Where ZYN nicotine pouches are manufactured

ZYN is a brand from Swedish Match – the largest manufacturer of Swedish Snus in the world. Swedish Match has a more than century-long history and has a large number of brands to its name – both snus and nicotine pouches.

Swedish Match is, of course, a Swedish company, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. However, in 2022, Philipp Morris, one of the leading tobacco companies in the world acquired Swedish Match. But whilst the ownership changed, the operations of Swedish Match (and ZYN) remained essentially the same, including the factories.

Due to the sheer size of the company and the large volumes of snus and nicotine pouches that the company sells, Swedish Match naturally has multiple factories.

For ZYN, specifically, however, there are two factories. One in Sweden and one in Kentucky. That said, ZYN nicotine pouches are made in Sweden and Kentucky, USA.

The factory in Kentucky has been operated by Swedish Match for many years for the manufacturing of Swedish snus for the US market. When Swedish Match launched ZYN in 2016, they also used this factory for the manufacturing of ZYN nicotine pouches for the US market. In 2019, Swedish Match completed a $115 million expansion of its Owensboro factory. The expansion of its factory was done specifically for ZYN due to the rapid growth of ZYN in the US. This expansion added a total of 120 jobs. Initially, Swedish Match had plans in 2017 to expand the factory capacity with a two-year construction project and a $40.9 million investment. However, that initial projection more than doubled over the following two years.

With the completion of the Owensboro expansion, the production capacity for ZYN grew five-fold.

The ZYN factory in Sweden is dedicated to the distribution of ZYN for essentially all other parts of the world than the US. The factory that Swedish Match uses in Sweden has been used for snus for many years so there was naturally great in-house expertise in making oral nicotine products when Swedish Match first launched ZYN.

USA ZYN factory

Whilst ZYN remains popular all around the world, the US is a particularly important market that has seen impressive growth over the years.

In fact, Swedish Match had a market share of 67% in the US at the beginning of 2023, most of which was made up of ZYN sales. Moreover,  between September 2019 and March 2022, Zyn’s sales increased from ”around 20 million pouches per month in the last quarter of 2019 to more than 140 million pouches per month in the first quarter of 2022.”

At the beginning of 2023, the company reported sales of 261 million pouches.

That said, having a local factory in the USA dedicated specifically to the US market is quite valuable. One, it simplifies the distribution process and avoids having to import the nicotine pouches from Sweden to the US. Second, the labeling and designs of ZYN sold in the US are different from the rest of the world so having a factory dedicated to one particular type makes the manufacturing process easier.

In addition, ZYN has different products for the US and for the rest of the markets. Specifically, ZYN Slim is not sold in the US. ZYN only makes mini dry. The reason for this has to do with market preference. Because countries like Sweden have a long history of using tobacco snus, ZYN slim (which is a slightly moist pouch) appeals to a lot of users in Sweden and Europe but perhaps not in the USA.

That said, the decision to have one ZYN factory in Sweden and one in the US is a strategic one. This decision also also been extremely valuable for ZYN to strengthen its position on the US market, something that has proven to be extremely fruitful.