Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

TOBACCO

Swedish Match profit rise just misses target

Swedish Match posted pre-tax profits of 757 million kronor for the third quarter, slightly below analysts’ expectations for the Swedish tobacco products company.

Published: 27 October 2009 14:08 CET
Swedish Match profit rise just misses target

The result is an improvement over the 693 million kronor the company reported for the third quarter last year, but fell short of the 776 million analysts had expected.

Swedish Match’s turnover climbed from 3.27 billion kronor to 3.6 billion kronor against an expected turnover of 3.65 billion.

The company expects the market for wet snuff, or ‘snus’, to expand in both Scandinavia and the United States in 2009.

“For the second half of the year, Swedish Match expects Group sales and operating profit excluding larger one-time items to exceed prior year. For the fourth quarter, Swedish Match expects that the combination of timing of shipments and promotions in the US and a weaker US dollar will bring Group operating profit below the level of the third quarter,” the company said in its report.

The company’s snus division continued to be a strong performer, with margins up to 48.8 percent from the second quarter’s reported margins of 42.6 percent and ahead of analyst forecasts of 47.6 percent, according to the Reuters news agency.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

SNUS

Illegal snus operations a growing problem in Sweden

Sweden’s status as the only country in the EU where snus is legal has created a growing underground manufacturing operation, broadcaster SVT reported on Saturday.

Published: 7 October 2018 03:40 CEST
Illegal snus operations a growing problem in Sweden
File photo: ANDERS WIKLUND / TT
More popular than cigarettes in Sweden, snus is a moist tobacco product either bought loose or in small parcels and placed under the lip. Its export to and sale within other EU countries is banned, and the EU has consistently opted to maintain that restriction, with Sweden granted an exception and allowed to sell the product within its borders.
 
But demand for snus beyond Sweden’s borders is growing. So too is the number of Swedish operations apparently willing to break the law to meet the demand by producing and selling snus in secret. According to SVT, some snus manufacturers skirt the export ban by running illegal snus sales alongside their legal activities. But the broadcaster said there is also a flourishing black market in which snus is sold under fake labels. 
 
“The knowledge is here since we have a long history of production. That makes Sweden a good starting point for the production of illegal snus,” Magnus Råsten of the Swedish Economic Crime Authority (Ekobrottsmyndigheten – EBM) told SVT. 
 
EBM has reported an uptick in illegal snus production in recent years, particularly in Gothenburg. But the agency does not have an overview of how much of the tobacco product is being manufactured and sold illegally. 
 
“Illegal manufacturing can in some cases be part of serious criminality but there are also manufacturers who are primarily engaged in legal activities,” Råsten said. “In contrast to drugs or weapons, it’s not as risky to get into the snus business because it is not illegal in Sweden. That also makes it harder for us to assess whether the activity is legal.” 
 
According to Råsten, much of the foreign demand for snus comes from Norway, Finland and Russia.
 
“There is a market that people want to reach,” he said. “When there is money to be made, criminality often follows.”