Un-Lucky News (RE: Lucky Strike)

[Snusdog]

Re: Who is aj01

My name is Andrew Romeo. I ran Gallaher Sweden in 2005-6 after multi-year stints in Russia and Poland, and created and launched the snus version(s) of LD (l was on the LD cigarette creative team in Russia in 1998), actively involved in flavors and pouch colors. Plus, we did some work on Gustavus as well.

When Gallaher was bought, I did 1 1/2 years of consulting as acting MD Scandinavia for Taboca AS.

Now, I blog on www.snuscentral.org.

http://www.snuscentral.org/snusnus/a...rspective.html

and I was interviewed for today's NY Times article on Camel snus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/bu...sq=snus&st=cse

And I am in the market for the next opportunity, but snus is too much fun to ignore!

Impressive........


Me? I have a Sam’s Club card........ Oh yea and I was recently involved in a multi lateral negotiation with a meter maid who I believe was of Irish decent.


.

[aj01]

LD

Sage:

It's not as romantic as it sounds. Gallaher was looking to leverage LD as a quality discount cigarette brand, as it had achieved top 3 status in Russia, and was growing in various new markets, including Ukraine, Poland, Czech, and Denmark (mid '05).

It was in the plan for Sweden for the last quarter of '05 as a cigarette launch. But we were so frustrated at the lack of mileage from Gustavus at midprice, and having had to delist Grand XL, and two StrongCuts, I asked Swedish marketing to come up with a dozen designs for LD as a snus. Vargarda had had new great blends ready for ages, so we took the LD cigarette color-coding, red, blue, gold (bergamot, juniper, tobacco), persuaded London we knew what we were doing, and launched super-cheap, all margin to the retailer. Got 7% company share by year-end 5/2 LD to Gustavus. The factory broke even.

2006 was tough due to bad Q1 cigarette sales, so Gallaher Sweden was asked to focus on cigarettes. But one project that survived was the "aromatics" project which was snus that doesn't smell terrible (for EU consumption). Like instant coffee, the aroma draws you to the product, but in this case, the taste keeps you. We had a German pouch producer create pouches in black, red, green and blue, and went through the trouble and time of having them approved by the Swedish food authorities. LD Black came from this. Super-black and desserty and sublime, with an extra-soft pouch. We were quite proud of it.

These days, it's all been 'rationalized' by JTI. F&L has been "rationalized" by BAT and Skruf is almost ignored by Imperial in Sweden. It's piddly money compared to cigarettes because of SM's dominance.

I'm frankly not impressed with the US situation at the moment (go figure!). Nordic American and American Snus are too small and cash-strapped to make an impact, and RJR is flooding the market with free/cheap product while PMUSA stays holed up in their test markets. I know Imperial/Skruf is officially interested in the US, and that Liggett-Vector is frustrated with both the market and its Swedish supplier.

Bizarre times, for sure. And I could go on forever!

[sagedil]

I know, very strange world,no idea where ANY of it leads.

BUT....

All I know is this. After losing my all time favorite, Retro White (maybe coming back, we shall see) and learning the same day that us Americans can no longer get either Camel Swedish or Lucky Strike any more, so my OTHER go two snuses, just left me reeling.

I have been trying out substitutes, and your blessed LD white was the first one to truly make me happy again.

So for whatever reasons it is here, you did GOOD!!!!

And please stick around here. I know you write on Snuscentral, but for many reasons, just never a place I will hang out in. So I am very, very happy to see you posting a bit more lately.

[daruckis]

i am so intrigued by everything you say. the snus industry is an interesting one.

[Snusdog]

AJ,

Very fascinating and informative. Thanks for sharing your insights with us. And by all means I hope you will pop in on a regular basis and shed a little light on some of these matters.

Anyway, thanks again for the posts.

[tom502]

I wondered if a US company could simply release a Swedish snus, sorta how music labels have a contract to release a foreign band's album in the US. Like if Skruf is interested in the American market, and Ligget-Vector or someone, could take Skruf snus, and sell them, like their own over here. I do think, and I keep saying it, that Swedish snus needs to overcome it's "need" for refrigeration to really break over here. I think if the snus was in a sealed foil bag in the can, that might work. But if L-V had a contract to be US distributer for Skruf, and they did this, they could get these ar the local gas stations and have these replace their Tourney/Grand Prix snus.

[paulwall9]

Sounds good in theory lets wait and see what happens TOM!

[Snusdog]

For the life of me I cannot understand why so many of ya’ll are so insistent on having snus sold here in the USA by American distributors. The only advantage that I can see is if something like the Pact Act should pass. At that point I’m with you.

But for now, the only things selling snus in the USA will accomplish are:
1. Higher prices and taxes
2. Limited selection
3. Older product
4. And finally, snus that has begun to cut corners to keep up with the profit margins of American dip (there is a profit generated reason that American dip has a chemically enhanced shelf life)

I get the convenience of running down to the corner mart to grab a can because you left yours at home or ran out. But the long term cost of this occasional convenience just does not make any sense to me. Help me out here folks. What am I missing?


Note: sold to the USA and sold in the USA are two very different things. I am all for the first and extremely leery of the second.

[paulwall9]

You know what else I just thought of, In america we have no gothiatek to regulate our tobacco so u r right snus could end up just being dip after all! Great points Snusdogs!!!