• 9/22/2005
  • England
  • Rachel Stevenson
  • The Independent (news.independent.co.uk)

Imperial Tobacco, the group behind the Regal, John Player and Superkings cigarette brands, said yesterday it was entering the market for smokeless tobacco despite a ban on the product in the EU.

The company has bought a 43.2 per cent stake in Skruf, a Swedish manufacturer of smokeless tobacco known as “snus”. The EU banned “snus” and most other forms of smokeless tobacco in 1992, but Sweden, where the product is hugely popular, negotiated an exemption from the ban when it joined the EU in 1995.

“Snus”, sold in tins, is moist, loose tobacco put in small teabag-like pouches that are placed under the lip. They produce a similar experience to smoking a cigarette. The product was banned because it was deemed attractive to children, who could become easily hooked and move on to cigarettes. There is also research to suggest the product could increase the risk of oral cancer.

Imperial hopes to capture some of the huge Swedish demand for “snus”. While cigarette sales have been in decline there, more than 200 million tins of “snus” are sold every year and rising.

Skruf’s chairman and founder, Adam Gillberg, said: “With this alliance, we will get the resources and the muscles that we need to grow.” The company has 1 per cent of the Swedish market.

The tobacco industry claims “snus” is far less harmful than cigarettes, containing less of the carcinogenic chemicals that are in cigarettes. It also eradicates the danger of passive smoke inhalation. British American Tobacco (BAT) has also launched a “snus” product in Sweden and claims that lung cancer deaths in Sweden are the lowest in Europe. BAT is also running a trial of “snus” in South Africa.