Who actually makes nicotine pouches: the manufacturers behind the brands
Four of the biggest pouch brands belong to three tobacco multinationals: ZYN to Philip Morris International, on! to Altria, VELO to British American Tobacco, and Rogue to the cigar maker Swisher. Below them sit independents — GN Tobacco, Skruf, Another Snus Factory — and a long tail of brands whose manufacturer is not stated on any document I can reach.
The useful thing to understand before the table is that “who makes it” is five different questions, and nearly every article on this subject collapses them. ZYN makes the point by itself: the brand is ZYN; the entity holding the US marketing order is Swedish Match USA, Inc.; the entities FDA names as the product manufacturer are Swedish Match North America LLC and Swedish Match North Europe AB; the corporate parent is Philip Morris International; and the plants are in Kungälv, Sweden and Owensboro, Kentucky. Brand, order-holder, manufacturer, parent, factory. Any sentence that treats those as one thing is wrong somewhere.
For the product itself rather than the companies, nicotine pouches explained is the pillar guide.
The three companies on FDA’s list
The cleanest primary document in this whole field is FDA’s list of authorised nicotine pouches, re-read today. It says: “There are 67 nicotine pouch products authorized by the FDA. These are the only nicotine pouch products that may be lawfully sold in the United States.”, and the page dates itself 30 October 2026. Three manufacturers appear, written exactly as follows: “Helix Innovations LLC” with 12 products, “Modoral Brands Inc.” with 24, and “Swedish Match USA, Inc.” with 31. Authorised strengths are 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 and 11 mg.
FDA attaches a standing caveat to that list and it belongs here verbatim: “While these products are authorized to be sold in the United States, it does not mean these products are safe, nor are they “FDA approved.” All tobacco products are harmful and potentially addictive. Those who do not use tobacco products shouldn’t start.”
Do not read the list as a catalogue of the shelf. Rogue, White Fox, Siberia, LOOP, Killa, Pablo, Klint, Nordic Spirit, Skruf’s lines and Lundgrens appear on none of it. The honest statement is narrower and more interesting: the lawful US market is three companies; the global shelf is much wider, and most of what is on it has no US authorisation.
One more trap. FDA’s own running totals disagree — a 4 August announcement said 30 products to date, a 21 August one said “To date, the FDA has authorized 43 nicotine pouch products overall, 23 as part of the pilot program.”, and 30 plus 11 is 41. Cite the list page, not the announcements. And product counts are not SKU counts: FDA explains that “The 24 authorized products include three types of packaging for the Velo Mini” Pouch and Velo Mini Pouch 2, each in four flavours, and that “types of packaging, resulting in a total of 24 unique tobacco products.” Reynolds’ own release the same day described eight products. Same authorisation, three times the count, depending on who is counting.
Brand by brand
| Brand | Legal manufacturer | Corporate parent | Factory |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZYN, ZYN ULTRA | Swedish Match North America LLC and Swedish Match North Europe AB (FDA’s own “product manufacturer” field); order held by Swedish Match USA, Inc. | Philip Morris International | Kungälv, Sweden; Owensboro, Kentucky |
| on!, on! PLUS | Not stated on any document reached; order held by Helix Innovations LLC | Altria Group | Not established |
| VELO (US) | Not stated; order held by Modoral Brands Inc. | Reynolds American, itself owned by British American Tobacco | Not established |
| VELO (Sweden), Lundgrens | Not stated | British American Tobacco Sweden, org.nr 556098-6779 | Not established |
| Rogue, Rogue MAX | Rogue Holdings, LLC | Swisher International | Not established; “made in the USA with domestic and imported ingredients” per the company |
| White Fox, Siberia, Oden’s and ~80 more lines | GN Tobacco Sweden AB | Giviton Holding, per GN’s own description | Enköping, Sweden |
| Skruf, Knox | Trading as “Skruf Snus”; no company form or registration number published on its own site | Imperial Brands | Sävsjö, Sweden (snus; no pouch line documented) |
| LOOP | Another Snus Factory Stockholm AB | Not established | Not established |
| Nordic Spirit | Not stated | Gallaher Limited, England and Wales no. 01501573, which abbreviates itself to JTI | Not established |
| Killa, Pablo, Klint, 77, Fumi, Ace | Not established | Not established | Not established |
Those “not established” cells are findings, not gaps in the research. I will come back to them.
The ownership chains, in the companies’ own words
ZYN → Swedish Match → PMI. Swedish Match states it on its own front page: “Swedish Match is a subsidiary of Philip Morris International.” and “Since 2022, we have been part of PMI – Philip Morris International.” The FDA review of the ZYN modified-risk applications is what separates the US order-holder from the making entities, listing Swedish Match USA, Inc. as applicant and the North America and North Europe companies as product manufacturer. FDA granted the modified-risk orders on 30 June 2026 for a specific claim — “Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.” — effective for five years. That is a closed list of named conditions, conditional on substitution for cigarettes, and it is not a general safety finding. The brand guide is at ZYN: the complete brand guide.
VELO → Modoral → Reynolds → BAT. Reynolds American states: “Reynolds American Inc. (Reynolds) is an indirect, wholly-owned” “subsidiary of British American Tobacco, p.l.c.” — and note the comma, which is how BAT’s own US subsidiary punctuates it. Modoral’s privacy policy adds the layer beneath: “modoralbrands.com which is operated by RAI Services Company, a” subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc. On the European side, BAT’s Swedish terms are explicit that the name is not a company: “VELO är ett handelsnamn för British American Tobacco Sweden org.nr 556098-6779” — VELO is a trade name. The global velo.com site is run by a third BAT entity again: “operated by Nicoventures Holdings Limited, a company incorporated” “in England and Wales with company number 07504518, whose” registered office is in London. Three BAT entities, one brand. See Velo: the complete brand guide.
on! → Helix → Altria. Altria lists Helix Innovations among its own companies. The origin is Swiss: Altria announced in 2019 an agreement to acquire 80% of certain Burger Söhne Holding AG companies that commercialise on! globally, and its subsidiaries closed on the remaining 20% in December 2020 and April 2021 for around $250 million. Note the verb — those companies commercialise on!, which is not the same as making it, and I found nothing placing a plant. Altria’s own manufacturing careers page names Richmond, John Middleton and USSTC; Helix is not among them. on!: the complete brand guide.
Rogue → Swisher. Rogue’s own terms give the notice address: “Notice to Rogue shall be sent to Rogue Holdings, LLC c/o Swisher” International, Inc. in Jacksonville, Florida, and the site’s privacy and opt-out links run to Swisher’s privacy domain. Two caveats for anyone searching: rogueone.com and freepouches.com are parked domains, 114 bytes each, not maker sites; roguenicotine.com is the real one. Rogue: the complete brand guide.
White Fox and Siberia → GN Tobacco. GN’s own terms say the business is “owned and operated by GN Tobacco Sweden AB”, and its About page names the group above it: “Giviton Holding manages all the businesses in Sweden, which include GN Tobacco” and several unrelated companies. Note the verb again — manages, not owns, with no company form or registration number given, so treat it as GN’s own characterisation rather than a verified shareholding.
Skruf → Imperial Brands. From Skruf’s own timeline, 2005: “Imperial Brands köper Skruf” — Imperial Brands buys Skruf. The parent is sourced; the legal entity is not. Nowhere on skruf.se, including its privacy policy, is a company form or organisation number published; the data controller is given only as “Skruf Snus”. I am not going to print a company name I cannot source for a business this size.
One factory, eighty brands
The reader’s real question is usually whether the dozen brands on the shelf are a dozen companies. For snus and pouches made in Enköping the answer is documented and it is no. GN Tobacco’s own About page: “With over 80 brands and varieties being produced at the factory in Enköping”, naming Oden’s, Siberia and White Fox among them, and the plant makes Swedish snus, chewing tobacco and tobacco-free pouches together.
Swedish Match runs three pouch plants, not one, and the fourth Swedish site is snus only. Its own address register lists Kungälv (snus and nicotine pouches), Silkeborg in Denmark (nicotine pouches and chew bags), Owensboro in Kentucky (moist snuff, nicotine pouches and chewing tobacco) — and Gothenburg, which makes snus and no pouches. Its 2021 annual report records that “Our facilities in Gothenburg and Kungälv, in Sweden are subject to obligatory notification in accordance with the Swedish Environmental Code.” If you have read elsewhere that Gothenburg makes pouches, that is wrong.
What I could not find, after looking, is any primary document showing a contract manufacturer making pouches for a rival’s brand. That is a negative finding rather than a hole: the white-label story is widely assumed and I cannot source it.
Where VELO, on! and Rogue pouches are physically made
Unestablished, all three, and the way the record fails is itself worth printing.
Modoral’s manufacturing page describes the process in detail and names no site, referring only to “the moment these ingredients arrive at our facilities”. Reynolds’ October release talks about growing manufacturing in America and an investment figure begun in 2024, with no plant named — investment language, not an address. Altria names three manufacturing sites and none of them is Helix. Rogue has no manufacturing page at all.
And the one document that would settle the ZYN side is withheld. Swedish Match’s product description and manufacturing module, released through FDA’s disclosure process, is a single page with no extractable text: fully redacted. FDA’s 2026 review also points twice to an earlier technical review containing the engineering detail and the results of FDA inspections of manufacturing sites — and the links FDA itself publishes to that document return a 404. For a product category of this size, the location of the factories is less public than the chemistry. We go through what is known about the process in how nicotine pouches are manufactured.
The brands nobody will claim
For Killa, Pablo, Klint, 77, Fumi and Ace I could not reach a single primary document naming a manufacturer. Several of those brand domains fail TLS or return a refusal; the reachable sites bearing those names are retail shops in other countries, which under our rules cannot be used to source a fact. Another Snus Factory publishes a Stockholm office address rather than a plant.
I would rather print that than guess. In a category where a brand can be registered, formulated, contract-made and sold without any of those facts being published, “not established” is the accurate answer, and anyone telling you confidently which Danish or Swedish plant makes Killa is probably telling you what a forum told them. If you want the full brand landscape regardless of ownership, the brand directory is the place to start, and the master ranking covers what we have assessed.
A note on reading corporate documents
Three practical cautions, all of which bit during this research. Company names are punctuated inconsistently even by their owners — FDA’s list writes Modoral Brands Inc. without a comma while Reynolds’ own structured data uses one; use the regulator’s form when naming an order-holder. Addresses conflict: the same BAT Swedish registration number appears with a Malmö address in one part of a page and a Stockholm one in the footer. And a brand’s own website may be owned by a different group company than the one that holds the product authorisation, which is why “who runs the website” is a poor proxy for “who makes the product”. National framing is just as unreliable: Norwegian-market snus is largely made in Sweden, and Skruf grows its tobacco in three other continents.
FAQ
How many companies really make nicotine pouches? In the lawful US market, three. Worldwide, more — but fewer than the shelf suggests, because single plants produce dozens of brands. GN Tobacco alone says it makes over 80 brands and varieties in one factory.
Does Philip Morris own ZYN? Yes, through Swedish Match, which says on its own site that it is a subsidiary of Philip Morris International and has been part of PMI since 2022.
Is VELO the same company as Lyft? VELO is the later name of the same BAT brand family, and BAT’s own Swedish site still carries LYFT product references in its page code. VELO itself is a trade name rather than a company, per BAT’s Swedish terms.
Who makes White Fox? GN Tobacco Sweden AB, in Enköping, which also makes Siberia, Oden’s and dozens of other lines in the same plant.
Are Skruf pouches made in Sävsjö? Unestablished. Skruf’s site lists tobacco-free lines in its navigation but the pages 404 and its product sitemap contains only snus, while its production page describes a tobacco process. The snus factory is documented; a pouch line there is not.
Why does FDA’s product count keep changing? Because FDA counts packaging variants as separate products and its own announcements have used inconsistent running totals. The list page is the figure to use.
Sources
- FDA, Nicotine Pouch Products Authorized by the FDA, content current as of 30 October 2026, read 11 November 2026.
- FDA, FDA authorizes marketing of 24 Velo nicotine pouches, 30 October 2026; and FDA authorizes 11 new nicotine pouches, 21 August 2026.
- FDA, Center for Tobacco Products, Technical Project Lead review of the ZYN MRTP applications, July 2026 (applicant and product-manufacturer fields; modified-risk claim; references to the earlier PMTA review).
- Swedish Match, home page and Addresses register; 2021 annual report.
- Reynolds American Inc.; Modoral Brands privacy policy, effective 1 January 2026; Modoral Brands, Science and Manufacturing.
- velo.com cookie notice (Nicoventures Holdings Limited) and VELO Sweden terms (British American Tobacco Sweden).
- Altria, Helix Innovations.
- Rogue terms and conditions and FAQs.
- GN Tobacco terms and About.
- Skruf, Om Skruf and Produktionen.
- Another Snus Factory; Nordic Spirit terms of use (Gallaher Limited, registered number 01501573).
- Funder disclosure for the pouch characterisation data referenced above: Scientific Reports, PMC12864968, which states “This research was funded by Altria Client Services LLC, an affiliate of Helix Innovations LLC, the manufacturer of” on! pouches, and discloses a pending Altria interest in the owner of the Loop brand.
Last verified 11 November 2026. Translations from Swedish are mine. Where a cell above reads “not established”, it means no primary document I could reach states the fact — not that the fact is unknowable.
