Swedish Match and PMI

[justintempler]

Joakim & Markus,

I saw your answers over at SnusCentral.

If I understood correctly, Swedish Match will take over the production of 1847. How does this affect the old Rocker factory that was producing 1847?

Also is there a timeframe for a Swedish Match/PMI launch of a Marlboro snus for the Scandinavian markets?

[Markus and Joakim]

Hi,

Your right about Swedish Match taking over the production of 1847 and naturally both the development and the production of 1847 will be transferred to our factories in Gothenburg. The operations in Arvika relating to 1847 will be shut down during the third quarter this year.

We wrote naturally but perhaps we should explain. Since 1847 by Philip Morris has a market share of only 1 per mille it's simply not economically defendable to keep use the production facility in Arvika when we can use the economies of scale that we have in our Gothenburg factories.

There is no timeframe for introducing Marlboro snus in Scandinavia.

BR
Joakim & Markus

[sagedil]

Any possibilities that it might change with the upcoming move?? Like get rid of the god awful after taste. If ever there was a snus that I started to think, wow, I might really love this, only to discover 5 minutes later how much I hated it, this is the one.

[Ainkor]

Any possibilities that it might change with the upcoming move?? Like get rid of the god awful after taste. If ever there was a snus that I started to think, wow, I might really love this, only to discover 5 minutes later how much I hated it, this is the one.

I agree. Great tin, great aroma, god awful nasty taste. It is actually the only snus I could not finish.

My suggestion though is to make it smell, taste and look exactly like GB #2 then it would quite possibly be perfect!

[justintempler]

The problem Swedish Match has no say so about PMI's formulation of 1847. And I wouldn't expect Swedish Match to tell us even if they knew there was going to be a change. All we can do is ask them to pass on our opinions.

It's the same with my question about Marlboro, but I had to ask anyway. The Marlboro name is too big of a brand name for PMI not to use and I expect at some point PMI will utilize it. But that will be PMI's decision not Swedish Match's.

[Markus and Joakim]

Hi,

1847 is produced under license and any changes in the formulation would be a joint decision between PMI and SM.

All decisions regarding the use of brand names etcetera outside of Scandinavia and USA is the decision of the joint venture between SM and PMI. The joint venture can choose to use any of PMI's and SM's brands.

Best,
J&M