Abstract
Why buy this report
- Get insight into trends in market performance
- Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change
- Identify market and brand leaders and understand the competitive
environment
Product coverage
Cigarettes; Cigars; Smoking tobacco
Executive summary
Economy cigarettes sees rapid growth
Economy cigarettes saw rapid sales growth over the review period, since a
minimum tax on economy cigarettes was introduced on 1 March 2003. Economy
cigarettes accounted for approximately 18% of total volume sales in 2004.
There was a flood of new products introduced in 2004, with economy cigarettes
seeing the most product developments.
There are, however, ongoing discussions as to whether these cheaper cigarettes
encourage people to smoke; if they encourage smokers to smoke more; and/or
encourage younger people to smoke (teenagers for instance), since they can
afford these cheaper cigarettes on low, or no, incomes. There are some
organisations that are actively working to see the legislation changed.
High tar cigarettes set to disappear
As people become more and more health conscious and as legislation has become
increasingly strict, the popularity of cigarettes with higher tar levels has
fallen. With the change of permissible maximum tar levels from 12mg to 10mg at
the beginning of 2004, high tar products have been eliminated. Some players
have changed their whole brand ranges, to still offer a wide spectrum of
cigarettes containing different levels of tar.
Overall growth in sales of cigarettes during review period, despite falls in 2003 and 2004
Volume sales of cigarettes increased between 1999 and 2002, despite
significant tax increases in 1997. Sales fell over the last two years of the
review period however, since people became increasingly health conscious. With
the new tax systems introduced in 1997 by the Swedish government, the EU
taxation laws, and the latest Swedish laws on economy cigarettes, the unit
price of cigarettes dropped slightly during the review period.
Snuff sees strong development
The moist snuff product "snus" is very popular in Sweden, and Sweden is also
one of the few countries where this product is available.
The sale of snuff increased over the review period and, due to its
convenience, portion snuff is becoming increasingly popular. More than half
the retail tins sold in 2003 contained portion snuff. The total amounted to
almost 200 boxes in 2003 and there are about one million snuff users. It is a
product area dominated by Swedish Match, but a lot of new brands with new
tastes and packaging have been launched from several different players over
the last 12 months.
Smoking tobacco and cigars see steady declines
Sales of cigars in Sweden continue to decline, since the habit of smoking
cigars is not very widespread among the population. There are few new recruits
in the younger age group and cigars are mainly smoked at parties or on special
occasions.
Sales of smoking tobacco are also decreasing for the same reasons. The
increased availability of economy cigarettes, however, also means that
consumers do not save as much by rolling their own cigarettes as they did
previously.
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