Why Is There a ZYN Shortage? A Quick Breakdown
Forget pandemics and political crises. Since May 2024, the United States has been facing a different kind of predicament — the ZYN shortage. Products have been flying off the shelves this year, to the point where the manufacturer simply can’t keep up.
While the problem only affects the US, news of the shortage has spread across the globe. To find out more about the current situation and what it means for customers, keep reading.
Customers from the US can’t buy ZYN from SnusCentral. To find out more about ways to buy from the US amid the current situation, check out this guide to the ZYN shortage.
What is the ZYN Shortage?
In April 2024, Philip Morris International (PMI) — the parent company behind ZYN — announced strong results for the first quarter of the year. It revealed that the US sales volume of ZYN had grown by 80%, causing supply tensions.
A few weeks later, customers started to notice a lack of supply. Various social media users began to complain about difficulties securing their favorite pouches from their usual shops, and asked if others were experiencing the same issues.
As it turned out, they were.
Some areas have been affected more than others, and less popular flavors are more widely available, but the shortage is nationwide. However, it doesn’t affect countries outside the US. We’ll explain why later in this article.
How ZYN is Responding
PMI didn’t comment on the shortage explicitly, but it has since revealed measures to combat the lack of supply.
Currently, all ZYN production for the US takes place at a Swedish Match factory in Kentucky. But since a single production facility has proven to be insufficient to satisfy demand, PMI is now in the process of building a new factory in Colorado.
As well as replenishing the supply, the $600 million project is set to create 500 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs for the local area. However, it will take around two years until the facility starts production. Factory construction isn’t an overnight job!
To try and keep up with demand until then, PMI is aiming to increase its nicotine pouch production in Kentucky. However, this won’t be enough to fix the shortage completely.
Why is there a Shortage?
If it wasn’t clear already, the cause of the ZYN shortage is excessive demand.
Companies organize their production processes based on how many units they expect to sell so that supply can be roughly in line with demand. There’s some margin for expanding or decreasing production. But when sales growth goes as high as 80%, it makes things complicated.
As a result, PMI simply doesn’t have the capacity to meet demand with its current setup — which is why it has now announced plans to open a new factory.
The Myth of the ZYN Factory Fire
Despite there being a straightforward and logical explanation for the current shortage, there are some alternative theories floating around online.
One is that a factory fire has negatively impacted production and inventory.
Seemingly, this rumor spread because of a genuine factory at the Swedish Match factory in Gothenburg, Sweden (where ZYN nicotine pouches for the non-US market are produced).
However, this factory doesn’t manufacture any products for the US, making the fire irrelevant. The event also didn’t have any impact on Europe or other regions, where there’s no shortage.
What the Shortage Means for US Customers
ZYN lovers have been scrambling to find alternative ways to get their hands on their favorite products.
Some customers have turned to alternative brands. There have even been cases of knockoff brands appearing on the market to entice consumers, with some social media users posting a product with an almost identical can design named “ZYNC” instead of “ZYN”.
Others are changing their shopping habits. While it was previously convenient to pick the nicotine pouches up from a gas station or supermarket, these retailers are now likely to have empty shelves.
Instead, many customers are turning to online retailers, who have more stock. Many sites have limited how many pouches each customer can buy to avoid selling out too fast.
What the Shortage Means for the Rest of the World
As we’ve been keen to highlight, the US is the only country facing a ZYN shortage.
This is unsurprising given its popularity in the region — to the extent that “ZYN” and “nicotine pouch” are synonymous to many. Meanwhile, in other regions such as Europe, brands like VELO are more popular than ZYN nicotine pouches.
Fortunately for non-US customers, there’s minimal chance that the US shortage will spread elsewhere and affect them. The Kentucky factory (and eventually the Colorado factory) are solely responsible for US production, while the Gothenburg factory is reserved for producing pouches for the rest of the world.
Plus, there are a few crucial differences between the products made at the two factories, meaning it wouldn’t make sense for PMI to alter its current system. For instance, the Gothenburg plant makes flavors like Lemon Spritz and Bellini, which aren’t available in the US (and the reverse is also true).
