Zyn Changed Nicotine Forever – Are Cannabis Pouches The Next Big Thing?
Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM), one of the largest tobacco companies in the world, has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past few years. As cigarette smoking continues its decades-long decline, PMI has aggressively expanded into smokeless alternatives, with Zyn – its flagship nicotine pouch brand – emerging as a major driver of growth.
Zyn’s rapid adoption in the U.S. market has played a key role in PMI’s resurgence. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized 20 Zyn products for sale, determining that these pouches contain “substantially lower amounts of harmful constituents than cigarettes and most smokeless tobacco products.” This regulatory green light reinforced Zyn’s positioning as a lower-risk alternative to traditional tobacco products.
PMI’s $16 billion acquisition of Swedish Match, the original manufacturer of Zyn, in 2022 has proven to be a strategic coup. The company reported shipping 238 million cans of Zyn in the U.S. that year, with projections indicating that this number will more than double in 2024. According to CNBC, PMI has committed over $832 million to expand Zyn’s production capacity, including new manufacturing plants in Aurora, Colorado and Owensboro, Kentucky.
This shift aligns with PMI’s broader corporate strategy: by 2030, the company aims for two-thirds of its revenue to come from smoke-free products, with an eventual goal of moving entirely away from cigarettes. As Goldman Sachs senior analyst Bonnie Herzog told CNBC, “The beauty of this transformation is that they’re actually generating faster top-line and faster profitability given the pivot to these businesses.”
With Zyn’s meteoric rise, PMI has demonstrated that nicotine pouches are more than just a passing trend. They represent a scalable, profitable and consumer-friendly alternative to traditional tobacco products. The question now is: can a similar shift happen in the cannabis industry?
From Nicotine To Nootropics: Pouches Are Just Getting Started
While Zyn has reshaped the nicotine industry, its success is part of a broader shift in how consumers approach smokeless and discreet consumption. Pouches, as a delivery system, are gaining traction across multiple categories, including cannabinoids, caffeine and nootropics. This trend suggests that the appeal of pouches extends far beyond nicotine replacement, opening the door for new product innovations.
Nick Kenny, lead advisor at KBS Strategic Advisory, has worked closely with major tobacco companies exploring these adjacent markets. He points out that Zyn’s success has fueled renewed interest in pouches as a delivery method for other substances.
“The widespread adoption of oral nicotine pouches by regulators and adult consumers has spurned renewed interest in the category as a delivery method for cannabinoids,” Kenny told Benzinga in an exclusive interview. “Big Tobacco [companies] are consistently looking to diversify and enhance their portfolio of offerings, and where they can leverage existing technology to differentiate, such as in the case of pouches, it’s a natural adjacency to take advantage of.”
Beyond nicotine, companies are expanding into new bioactive substances that fit well within the pouch format. Cannadips, a California-based company specializing in smokeless, spit-free pouches, has pioneered THC and CBD-infused alternatives to traditional oral tobacco. Co-founder Case Mandel has been at the forefront of this shift, developing pouches infused with THC, CBD, caffeine and nootropics.
“We participate in all those different categories (…) we have brands in all the different …