Royal Snus

The Swedish King Uses Snus

Is it the crown prince? My father stared the country's heir in the eyes a bit suspicious. The crown prince, the future king, here? In a study center at Lidingö where you just met with trade unionists on the course or conference? To meet the crown prince in a lunch queue was about as likely as running on the astronaut Neil Armstrong at the meat counter at Tesco. It did not make any sense.... But, yes, "nodded the future king. He explained a bit shyly, that it in fact was the crown prince who was queuing in line.

What do you do to avoid the awkward silence and embarrassment that inevitably takes over after such a question? My father soon found the advice: Well, if you are the crown prince then you must have a snus! From his pocket he pulled out a box Röda Lacket and the crown prince took a little pouch and tucked under the lip. The adjutants who were at the crown princes side got a good laugh. And my father brought home a snus can which acted Royal Warrant. This all took place January 13, 1971, as my father carefully noting the underside of the "Box of the Prince".

The snus-box was carried home as if it were one of the Swedish state regalia, as it may also verging on is. If the king continued to use snus is something that I do not know. In television interviews, his problem with giving up smoking is discernible. And why should not a Swedish king do as so many other Swedes, and take snus to help quit smoking? But I know and have proof - at least in the form of "Box of the Prince" - because he used snus at least once. And the box bears in itself something of a royal splendor. Its metal lids gleams as if it were gold. Far from the modern plastic lid. Then, in 1971, the cover was instead of sheet metal. Lightweight and gold-plated, so that it shone beautifully.

Anyway, it is perhaps logical, with the crown prince. A Swedish king, or future king, should certainly be noted by the Swedish citizens have been faced with that at least be invited to snus. Swedish snus is traditionally Swedish and no doubt part of a national identity. Snus is as Swedish midsummer, herring and snaps or one-Evert Taube-song. And the number of snus users in Sweden only increases. Today we have over one million Swedish snus users and the number seems to only increase. The Swedish snus consumption is approaching one kilogram of snus per person and year. In the U.S. snus is sold and consumed on a huge scale, but averaged over the entire U.S. population is not particularly noteworthy figures.

But what is Swedish snus? Well, according to the official definition as stated in the context of the EU Commission examined the Swedish snus to be or not be before the EU entry is the "tobacco soaked in crushed form for oral use". Swedish snus is moist snus, in other words used in the mouth. It isn’t chewed, as many American varieties, it is not drawn into the nose, as the English or German snus. It is used in the mouth. Just EU accession was the definitive proof of the strong position of snus in Sweden. A crafty entrepreneur made a presumably hefty hack by printing bumper stickers reading: "EU - not without my snus!". But the history of the EU and the Swedish snus is the reason to come back to.

Today there are around one million Swedish snus users. Not counting the youngest, this means that one in six in Swedish uses snus. And from being a typical male phenomenon is today snus much more equal. During the 90s, the number of women who use snus increased dramatically, from the ranging from only a few percent until todats figures where women are close to one fifth of the consumers. The reason that Sweden was one of the first countries to reach the World Health Organization WHO's objective, to keep the the number of smokers below 20 percent of the population, can be spelled snus. For it is quite established fact that snus has been a much more effective way to stop smoking than to use nicotine gum, patches, smoking cigarettes or any other mischief that pharmaceutical companies can find and sell for good money.

"Snus is nature's own Nicorette", as advertising profile Johan Helmertz has written. Today snus is used by every fourth man in Sweden, and a growing number of women. Snus has over the years also become a growing business. In the 60s the Swedish Tobacco AB saw no real future in snus. Sales curve faded, and the snus was an almost extinction of species. There were even arguments to close the Swedish snus manufacturing process.

Then it was cool to smoke. "Even I have taken up Prince" testified the actor Ernst-Hugo Järegård and other celebrities in ads. And no, it wasn’t a pinch of snus that James Bond baked when he stood at the bar and ordered a Dry Martini. Cigarettes and smoking was part of an increasingly Americanized identity that we in Sweden embraced. Coca-Cola, Levi's, American cocktails, American films, Elvis and the Beach Boys, and the whole thing was covered in a fog of smoke from a Marlboro or Camel.

Today, it is cooler to use snus. Definitely not cool to smoke. Smokers may now find themselves in becoming supplant the growing number of environments, and to anyone who wants to find the smoking room in an office or a public place may often have to look far. Not to mention the experiences that await inside the smoking room or on a balcony. Nor has anyone heard about special snus rooms or snus free sections in restaurants. Snus allows a kind of freedom and leeway that smoking will never recover. "Snus is snus albeit in golden boxes, said the Swedish writer Fröding. The guy certainly knew what he was talking about. Back then. But snus cans are now more than just golden cans. Plastic lids shine not as nice as the old tin lid. But cans deliver golden profits for the large manufacturer of Swedish snus - Swedish Match. The pure profit for the year 2002 landed at SEK 1233 million. The operating margin of snus is currently at 44 percent. Nevertheless, Swedish Match has put big money in investments, including the new snus plant in Stenungsund and marketing, primarily in the United States. In 2001 when the operating margin was "down" at 38 percent after that 200 remained at 45 percent. But now, snus profits back to its almost unreasonably high level. That is: for the money they receives in sales of snus, they can recoup between 40 and 45 percent in pure profit.

Fröding must forgive: snus is snus in golden cans. A simple calculation on the margins shows that Swedish Match has a clean profit of at least five crowns on each box. Above all, portion-packed snus exhibit an extraordinary high profit margin. It's nice to snus, even in the financial statements that is. And probably it is the Swedish snus billion that today attracts new businesses and entrepreneurs to seek out the growing moist snus market. The Silo aspiring towards the sky next to the E20 is an old helpful feature to find the Vårgårda mill. But today they make snus, not flour or puffed rice, in the old mill building. And the advertising agency that uses Gustavus has rightly suggested that we should put the banner on the silo, which would make it the world's largest snus stock. Nowadays, it is Austria Tabak, which in turn is owned by the British Gallaher Group, which owns Gustavus. The same company that bought Swedish Match's cigarettes now wants to compete on the lucrative snus market.

House of Prince, the Danish owner, as with cigarette brand Prince has been big on the Swedish tobacco market since the 60s, is now moving also into the snus market. In December 2002 the company announced that the launch of a "Prince snus" was underway. Many hope and believe that the EU politicians and bureaucrats to consider its previous negative attitude to the Swedish snus and releases it freely even in the rest of Europe. A review of the ban on snus will be made in the EU court. With others words, nothing is silent on the snus front.

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