Xobe interviews V2.

[chadizzy1]

Xobe interviewed Patrick and Marc from V2 recently, really good article.

http://www.snuscentral.org/snus-revi...nish-snus.html

[justintempler]

Re: Xobe interviews V2.

...really good article.

Ummm... I guess you read a different article than I did. It seemed like all fluff and no substance.

[PsychoHazard]

I thought it was amusing. Not necessarily very informative, but still a good read.

[chadizzy1]

I didn't know V2 was named after the Vogels. Should have put it together, 2 Vogels....V2....it makes sense.

[Veganpunk]

I knew that. I read it on Snus On a few weeks ago. I can't remember who or why it was said.

[sagedil]

Quit pimping Snuscentral Chad. :wink:

[daruckis]

i thought it was pretty good.

[texasmade]

we need xobe back...

[lxskllr]

It was a good read, but it seemed to have Larry's hand in the editing ;^)

The Vogels are younger than I thought. I'd love to have a successful snus business :^)

[aj01]

V2

I threw in a comment on Larry's site.

I honestly don't understand how these guys make money. They "hired 10 people" to run the "new equipment," but there's only so much equipment one can buy.

Gallaher ran a factory with a 20m annual capacity with three machines in the secondary, and 21 people on two shifts (with temps on standby).

They hit their peak when LD was out in force (4 flavors, 3 in portion and loose + Gustavus) at 12 million cans. Labor was still over 50% of our cost, and 12m cans was break even, even while depreciating the new 3rd Mertz machine.

These guys do Offroad, Phantom, and Odens in dozens of flavors/varieties/sizes and in small batches. This means their machines are being run inefficiently, so they are buying more. There is no way they are producing volumes which merit "ten more" employees, let alone ten total. Taboca does 1m cans per year (8 skus) with six people.

I've heard they are successful nonetheless. Would love to peak behind the curtain!

[justintempler]

Chad Xobe's article was too cutesy, I prefer this version:

Original link in Danish:
http://www.erhvervsbladet.dk/ivaerks...eksporteventyr

Google translation:

Snuff creates export adventure

By Egon Rasmussen er@erhvervsbladet.dk
Friday the 30th October 2009, 07:00

The EU banned snus in all countries except Sweden and Denmark. Yet the entrepreneurial firm succeeded in making sniff his own black gold.

Production of snuff has been a small business stories of brothers Patrick and Marc Vogel, who in 2006 established V2 Tobacco A / S in Silkeborg. Your company is expanding constantly and exports 99 percent of snus production.

The raw material consists of tobacco from India and the Philippines added various flavorings, water and salt. The finished snuff comes in cans. Either in bulk form or in small bags. The ideal location for snuff is the front of the mouth. Then there developed saliva, explains the bread.

Their success is partly due to the pervasiveness of smoking bans in many countries. If you can not smoke, one can get nicotine into the body through snuff.

Many things are forbidden in Sweden - but not snuff. The Swedes have decades of tradition with the use of snuff and plugs it into his mouth like no other. This explains why the prohibition Sweden funny enough, the entrepreneurial firm's largest market, while its product is banned in all EU countries except Denmark, where the sniff can be purchased in 150 stores. And the Danish permission is only partial. For we should only buy snuff in loose form and not in small bags. Of course, taking snuff friends formed an association and www.snusforeningen.dk can be wiser to drink.

Besides Sweden exports V2 Tobacco sniff Norway, Japan, USA and other countries outside the EU. Customers are wholesale companies.

Space is too narrow

Although various export barriers go swimmingly for the V2 Tobacco A / S, which is the only foreign firm snuff in Sweden. Entrepreneurial Company has recently established a sales subsidiary in Sweden to handle sales to shops. The initiative will bring new customers who V2 Tobacco will help to handle the import of Danish snuff.

In just three years is V2 Tobacco gone from zero to 15 employees and annual turnover has doubled and the bottom line. Meanwhile, the brothers over three years invested about ten million. kr in machinery and equipment. In 2008/09 profit before tax was 1.9 million. kr

Production takes place in the premises, the municipality rent out to entrepreneurs. But the site was too narrow and without the possibility of extensions.

- We can not keep up with demand and need for several production lines, "explains Marc Vogel, 36 years.

Therefore, brothers by having made drawings and bid on a new factory of 2,400 square meters in Silkeborg, where it will need approximately 30-40 employees. It will cost around 14 million. kr building, but they will not tie money in bricks. Therefore, they operate with a sale and leaseback arrangement, "explains Patrick Vogel, 33 years.

300,000 in overdrafts

Why invest in snuff? After graduating as a production engineer Marc Vogel was employed at Orlik Tobacco Company in Holstebro, producing pibetobakker. Since Orlik and Scandinavian Tobacco Company built a snus factory in Sweden, moved Marc Vogel and became responsible for production. After three years he returned home and got a job at Danpo Chicks. The desire to be independent had both he and little brother Patrick, who at the time studying for business development engineer in the Herning. They spent six months to write a business plan, and then went they would start to buy tobacco and machinery home and organize production. They arrived each with £ 250,000 in hand, and Save Salling thought so much of the project that they had an overdraft of £ 300,000 and an additional loan of DKK 300,000 for the purchase of machinery.

The goal in Sweden is to capture ten percent of the Swedish market, which annually consumes 220 million. snus cans.

- There remains much to the ten percent, notes Patrick Vogel.

:!: :!: There is also a good time in the growth in the U.S., where V2 Tobacco has signed a three-year agreement with a company that has salespeople in the field. Americans consume annually content of 1.3 billion snuff cans. :!: :!:

In Japan, V2 Tobacco subsided somewhat in the wake of a large Swedish producer and exploits the power to sell sniff a little cheaper.

Good business

- Our challenge is to strengthen our position in Sweden and get a better foothold in the U.S.. At the same time we must keep up with demand and requires capital for capacity expansion. Fortunately we have a good bank that understands what we are doing, "says Patrick Vogel.

Brothers' advice to other entrepreneurs lights: Take the time to get down a good business plan. Use the region's greenhouse and Business Council as a sparring partner. Get comprehensive money together so I can found the company in corporate form.

Marc Vogel is a skilled toolmaker at Grundfos, while Patrick is a skilled and trained shop the Market before he was business development engineer.

Since their initial order of 1,500 canned snuff inlets, helped the whole family and friends a weekend to pack cans manually. A little later there came suddenly a warrant of 18,000 cans, and it created additional goodwill in the bank. Brothers biksede a label machine and along a filling line to snuff in pouches and cans. They could now only produce 1,200 cans a day. And they could sell it all.

Can not keep up with

In the summer of 2007 the bank gave the green light to an investment of 1.3 million. kr, and now ran a small factory in two shifts. Bank followed with interest on the sidelines and in the summer of 2008 invested V2 Tobacco 2.5 million. kr in a new production line, doubling capacity. In spring this year was invested 4.5 million. kr in a 3rd production line.

- There we are now. But we need more capacity, because we can not keep up with demand. And there is no room for expansion here on the spot. Therefore, we want to build a new factory, "explains Marc Vogel.

[cstokes4]

Great read, thanks for posting.

[aj01]

V2

Now THAT's an article.

They will absolutely not get 10% of the Swedish market. BAT has about 8% today based solely on cheap Granit, SM has 88%, and the rest is divided up amongst the others.

Sweden subscribes to the classic "80/20" rule" 80% of snus is sold in 20% of the shops. And those shops are packed with SM and BAT coolers, with a smattering of JTI, Skruf and Taboca. The rest of the average Swedish C-store is covered by horse-betting platforms.

Also, V2 will have to use Swedish Match Distribution (a paid service). Their "low marketing costs" as mentioned in Xobeloot's article will be put to the test in Sweden, for sure. And Swedes aren't 'flavorphiles:' Bergamot/citrus, pure tobacco, juniper and licorice are 90% of the market, so the V2 'unique selling proposition' of small batch flavor varieties will be non-operational there. The unsure tax environment also does not bode well. 10% year-on-year volume growth has ended.

[justintempler]

This piece is a couple(?) years old, but it gives more backround on V2 I thought others might find interesting.

Patrick went to a university that showcases him as one of their success stories.

Original link in Danish:
http://hih.au.dk/Default.aspx?ID=4267

Google translation:

Snus to success

Entrepreneurial brothers Marc and Patrick Vogel from Silkeborg have great success with the company V2 Tobacco producing snuff. Sales are so good that they now have to expand capacity.

The Danish market for snuff is relatively small, and furthermore we must only sell loose snus at home and not the more handy portion-packed product. Therefore, it is perhaps not the most natural in the world to start up a snuff factory in Denmark, but that is exactly what they silkeborg two Palestinian brothers Marc and Patrick Vogel has done. Together they work to make their business idea into a success, and after the first year of life V2 Tobacco exports to seven different countries including Sweden, Norway and Japan. Moreover, they have their own brand called offroad on the Danish market.

"We have moved beyond the steppes, and in fact we already have to expand capacity to keep up with. This summer we have a capacity of 10 million. cans, and we are well ahead of our targets at this time. It makes work very enjoyable, although the course is tough, "says Patrick Vogel.



International business
V2 Tobacco's address in Aberdeen at Silkeborg, but it operates largely internationally. The actual business idea has got brothers in Sweden, where Marc Vogel has helped to build a snuff factory. Production equipment, tobacco and tins come from 3 different countries in the East.

"The Danes begin to wake up to snuff, good quality, but there has been such a tradition of using snuff, as for example in Sweden. Therefore, the export market at least as exciting as the Danish. They are two different ways to sell. In Denmark, we sell our own brand of specialty shops, and the export market we sell larger lots to wholesalers, who either owns or retailers selling the product forward, "says Patrick Vogel.



Entrepreneurial Studies
Their know-how to start business, the two brothers and business partners including received from their very entrepreneurial-oriented education. Marc has studied production engineering at the University of Aarhus, Trade and Technology in Herning, and Patrick is doing her training in the same place. In just over a half years, he can call themselves Business Development Engineer.

"BDE-training is all about product development and business development. It is an education for creative people with a good will to keep something going. On education, we strongly supported in becoming self-employed, if we have the desire and ability. For example, you can take the compulsory internship in his own business, so that training does not bring an end to business plans, "says Patrick.

A bet
Yet it was a bit of a bet in spite of a lot of work with market research and business plan before they inaugurated the production premises.
"One of our mentors, Hans Jessen Møller from Entrepreneurship Væksthuset Business Factory at AU-IBT, always say that you should never start something up, unless you have its first order. Anything else is too uncertain. We were forced to ignore, for the food producer, you can not sell anything without a sample. Customers will test the product so they can see why they should buy it from you and not from your competitor. One can not describe themselves out of it, because you can not explain how to sniff tastes, "says Patrick.
Within the foreseeable future, the two brothers would like to increase sales in the Swedish market, and long-term ambition is to enter the U.S. market, which sold 1 billion. cans.

[Xobeloot]

Sorry for having too much fun with it Justin. Next time I'll write something more to your liking :roll:

Fluff is what I do. It is what I have always done, and it is what I will always do. It may be fluff, but it is far more entertaining than just posting other peoples articles while putting others down.

I'm actually glad you don't like it. You have reminded me of what I hate about this place. Postwhores who count posts as currency, and Wikipedia elitists.

And before anyone says anything about me going back to SC, you'll notice that I write for them, but I don't really post anywhere.

Nonetheless. I'll keep writing in my "fluffy" manor, and you will keep googling more articles to make you sound smart and the cycle will continue. Only next time I won't have anything else to say about it.

Texasmade, Thanks for the wished that I would come back, but I dont foresee that ever happening. I love Icetool, snus, and a few people that post here. But those people all know where to find me off-site.

Best wishes to you all,

Xobe