Snus can't launch in Canada

[stew.12]

There are laws against advertising anything tobacco related in Canada. It's grim when you go to the corner store, and there's aluminum casing blocking all the cigarettes, cigars, rolling papers. Shops have to invest thousands of dollars into cigarette cages, as if the prices of tobacco weren't bad enough, it's getting worse.

Since cigarette packs must dedicate half of their labels to warnings, the best I've seen from Dumaurier snus is a small, inch wide sticker on select cigarette packs. No explanation of the new product, just displaying the fact that it's available.

I WANT to see swedish snus in shop fridges all over the place. Since the poor intro. of canadian snus, there's been no movement from imperial tobacco to expand their brands, or invest in foreign snus. More and more words or snus restrictions to North America, it has me worried that snus has been a complete failure in North America, i mean camel released a better product in sweden?

[justintempler]

Re: Snus can't launch in Canada

....More and more words or snus restrictions to North America, it has me worried that snus has been a complete failure in North America, i mean camel released a better product in sweden?

If you're in Canada I understand the pessimism.
The United Sates is a different story.

Swedish Match is much, much bigger than just snus. Swedish Match is already in more places than people realize. Every place you see Red Man, Timber Wolf, Longhorn (dip/chewing tobacco/moist snuff), Swedish Match is there. Every place you see Borkum Riff, Half and Half, (pipe tobacco), Swedish Match is there. Every place you see White Owl, Garcia y Vega, La Paz cigars, Swedish Match is there.

At some point I expect Swedish Match to do a national rollout of snus in the United States.

[darkwing]

Sadly, the Federal Government instituted a new tax regime that taxes all "manufactured tobacco" (which includes smokeless) on a 50 gram basis so the 8 gram tin is now taxed 600 times what it was before. The packaging is different from cigarettes and cannot be adjusted to a 50-gram standard. Imperial is, I believe, currently absorbing the extra costs on the snus they sell, but in such a regulatory environment, how can snus ever catch on here in Canada?