India has the largest oral tobacco consumption in the world through habits that have been present at all levels of society for centuries. This is addition to smoking tobacco in the way of cigarettes and bidis. The total market for oral tobacco in India is estimated as Rs.60 billion p.a. The habits of smoking or of consuming tobacco orally have severe medical problems and therefore there exists a potential in introducing a product which has been clinically proven to be significantly less hazardous.
The use of oral moist "snuff" has been practiced in Sweden for more than 200 years and considerable expertise has been developed by Swedish Match to produce a product called "Snuss" that is considered to be a highly refined and relatively safe form of nicotine sustainance. Swedish Match has introduced "Snuss" in various markets outside of Sweden i.e. Scandinavia, Germany, USA and Southern American countries, very successfully over the last decade.
Over the last two years, Swedish Match has conducted extensive consumer research in various areas of India in order to assess the market for 'Snuss' and has discovered considerable latent potential. This is a product concept which has been shown by independent medical research, carried out over a number of years in Scandinavia to offer considerable benefits over existing methods of using tobacco products to the Indian Consumer and has chosen Tirven Consumer Products Ltd. as its Indian Partner.
Background to Project
Swedish Match, listed on both the Stockholm and NASDAQ Exchanges, is a sweden based international Group which manufactures a wide range of tobacco product, matches and disposable lighters. Swedish Match has been present in India since 1923 when Western Indian Manufacturing Company, now known as WIMCO Limited, was set up to manufacture matches. Wimco is not only the largest match manufacturer in India but is also the largest match manufacturer within Swedish Match Group; producing approximately 40% of the entire volume of matches produced by Swedish Match universally. In addition, Wimco has done considerable development work in Agro Forestry as well as chemical research for making technology and splints available to small scale industries. Through its leadership in the match industry, Wimco has contributed not only to employment to several thousands of people directly but also to the cottage sector across the country.
Tirven Paperboards Limited, recently renamed Tirven Consumer Products Limited, is an Indian Company promoted by WIMCO Ltd. Tirven Paperboards was originally incorporated for the production of boards for input to the match manufacturing process but has now been restructured due to a glut in the paperboard industry.
