Source: www.dailypress.com
Author: Jon Cawley

From outside the non-descript facility on Merrimac Trail nothing indicates it’s home to Marlboro Snus, a spit-less, smokeless tobacco product that company officials say is gaining significant market traction.

Inside, processed tobacco is finely ground, cooked, flavored, pouched and packaged by automated machinery in sanitary “clean rooms.” High-speed robots can produce 150 Snus packages — each containing six individual pouches of tobacco — per minute, officials said during a recent plant tour.

The York manufacturing center is the only place making Snus (pronounced snoose). The tobacco product has been in limited production since late 2007 but began nationwide distribution in March. That marks a big turnaround for the once-idle York County plant that underwent a $100 million renovation and expansion beginning in 2006 and now employs 17 salaried and 30 hourly workers along with 54 contractors.

During renovations, Philip Morris USA gutted the facility, located across from Anheuser Busch’s Williamsburg-area brewery. It had been closed for about three years since the company discontinued production of an electrically heated smoking device.

The facility was expanded by 33,000 square feet to 139,000 square feet and fitted with high-tech machinery specific to making and packaging Snus. That construction was partly funded by a $650,000 state and county grant, said Ed Tucker, a director with the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Manufacturing Co.

Tucker said Snus and its packaging are discreet and designed to appeal to consumers as smoking restrictions continue to tighten. He said that because Snus is cooked instead of fermented, bacteria is removed and less saliva is produced during consumption making it ingestible. Traditional smokeless tobacco, typically called chew or dip, can’t be swallowed and has to be spit out.

In just under three years, Snus has carved out a 3 percent share of the smokeless tobacco market and company officials said they anticipate further growth although there are no plans to expand the York facility again or pursue international distribution.

Snus is “clearly one of the dominate players,” said David Sutton, a spokesman with Altria Client Services, the parent company of Philip Morris USA and the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Manufacturing Co. that recently took over ownership of the York plant.

“To go from basically nothing to 3 percent in two to three years — that’s significant,” Sutton said.

And the tobacco company isn’t the only one benefitting, as York County gets a sizable bite as well. The facility’s machinery and tools taxes topped $266,000 in 2010. Real estate taxes for 2010, on the facility currently valued at about $11.4 million, comprise another $75,000, according to Commissioner of the Revenue data.