“If a pod falls on the ground, it decomposes – instead of just lying there” – Nor in an interview with Snuzone

What happens when a used Nicotine Pouches falls on the ground? For most brands: nothing. Conventional Nicotine Pouches do not fully decompose in nature, or only very slowly, and therefore represent an environmental burden. To prevent this, the Norwegian brand Nor has completely rethought the Nicotine Pouches: the "NAKD Pod." The promise behind it: a pouch-free nicotine pod that dissolves on its own within just a few days. The pod was developed by Den Norske Snusfabrikken AS – the first manufacturer in Norway to specialize in Nicotine Pouches and white Snus. The fact that the factory is still the only one of its kind in Norway was by no means a given from the start.

Intertabac – the world's largest trade fair for tobacco products and smoking accessories, which took place in Dortmund from September 15 to 17, 2026 – gave Nor the ideal opportunity to present the "NAKD Pod" to an international trade audience and engage directly with the industry and retail.

The key facts about Nor 

Interview with Nor

At Intertabac, we seized the opportunity to interview Lina Therese Monge (Office Manager) and Lars Volle (Sales Manager) from Den Norske Snusfabrikken. Topics covered in the interview included sustainability, regulation, and the brand’s future plans. How does Nor navigate Norway’s strict standardised packaging regulations? What can we expect from the brand in the future: new markets, formats or flavours? What does the production process behind Nor products look like? The interview provides answers to these questions and more.

You’re coming up on four years since the brand Nor launched – what’s the story of how the Norwegian Snus Factory got started as the first and only factory that produces all-white nicotine pouches?

Monge: Nor was founded by Tony Persson and Lotta Båtemyr, who each have over 20 years’ experience working with some of the industry’s biggest names — Swedish Match, Philip Morris and British American Tobacco. Tony was part of the team that developed Epok, one of the very first all-white nicotine pouches. They joined forces with Øyvind Simonsen, who brought Epok to Norway as its distributor. Having spent their entire careers in this field, they founded Nor: the only snus factory in Norway, made by people who understood the category inside out. There was no external funding or investors. The founders invested their own money to establish a presence in what is, by any measure, an expensive business to break into. Now that the factory is up and running, the early groundwork is paying off: there's real capital behind the brand and the focus has shifted to marketing and expanding Nor's market share.

From your perspective, how does the fact that the product is made in Norway compare with products from other providers on the market?

Monge & Volle: Nor is 100% Norwegian, developed at our own production facility in Norway. In terms of market position, Nor is the fourth-biggest snus brand in Norway, behind brands like Epok (now Velo) and Skruf.

What really sets us apart, though, is that we do everything ourselves. We buy the raw materials and do our own mixing in-house, which isn't common in this industry — a lot of brands don't manufacture where they sell, let alone control the whole process from start to finish. Because we do, we know exactly what goes into every single pouch, and it also means we can experiment: testing new ideas in small batches rather than committing to a full production run. Norway plays into this in a very specific way, too. Since 2018, we've had plain packaging rules here — no visible branding, no colour beyond a kind of military-style tone, and strict limits on text size. From next year, flavour names will be banned from the cans altogether, which is exactly why you see so many Norwegian snus cans labelled with numbers instead of names. It's a real regulatory constraint, but it's also just become part of how the category works here — and it's part of why a numbering system fits naturally into that landscape.

Essentially, Nor moved away from packaging and naming conventions that featured prominent Norwegian mountain and landscape imagery. What can you tell us about this rebranding?

Monge & Volle: In Norway, we have maintained a strong sense of identity, which is precisely why we originally named products after mountains such as Galdhøpiggen, Norway's highest mountain — the idea was to incorporate Norwegian values and culture into the branding.

The issue was that this didn't translate internationally. We received feedback from customers abroad saying that nobody knew what these mountains were or what they represented, meaning the names had no significance outside Norway. That's why we started naming products after the flavour itself — it's simply easier to understand wherever you are. However, we haven't dropped the Norwegian identity altogether — you'll still find the Norwegian flag on the product.

Could you briefly walk us through what happens between the raw ingredients arriving and a finished pouch rolling off the line?

Monge: We control the entire production process ourselves, step by step. It starts with the raw materials, flavours and ingredients — we work with natural aromas rather than artificial ones, which many producers rely on because they are cheaper, but which end up tasting fake. Aromas are our speciality.

The raw materials and aromas are mixed together, and, at this stage, we constantly test the pH value. Once that's correct, we move on to the actual mixing. From there, the mixture goes to the production machines.

Despite this speed, nothing goes out unchecked. Every ten to fifteen minutes, someone stationed right by the machine pulls out a pouch and checks it by hand — they weigh it and test whether it has the correct strength. Once the pouches are finished, someone else monitors the line for burn marks or dark spots, which usually occur when a machine runs too fast — a problem we've seen at other manufacturers. After that, the pouches are weighed again before going through the labelling machine.

How does sustainability factor into your product development and packaging — is that something NAKD Pods were specifically designed around?

Monge & Volle: Yes, NAKD Pods are really where this comes together for us. It’s a patented product made from sustainable, degradable ingredients. What makes it more environmentally friendly than a traditional nicotine pouch is simple: 

there’s no outer pouch at all. Most nicotine pouches are made from cellulose-based fibres and sealed with a synthetic binder that simply doesn’t degrade.

With NAKD Pods, we’ve solved this problem by eliminating the synthetic binder entirely. Instead, we use a natural, vegan binder called agar, so there is no plastic holding it together. If a pod ends up on the ground, it breaks down rather than just sitting there. On top of that, NAKD Pods essentially just contain nicotine. We’re also working to reduce the amount of plastic used in our cans.

"NAKD Pods" have no outer shell. Agar, a natural and vegan binding agent, is added to their formula, making this unnecessary. The pods are placed under the upper lip with the flat side facing up, similar to conventional Nicotine Pouches — they do not melt.

What can we expect from Nor in the future? Will there be new flavors, formats, or markets?

Monge & Volle: Looking ahead, expanding into export markets is a key area of focus for us, and NAKD will play a significant role in this expansion. In addition, we have a brand-new product in development: a baked white snus that we hope to launch in Sweden soon. It's patented, and as far as we know, no other company has developed anything similar yet.

We're also constantly developing new flavours to meet market demand and can move quickly on that, often picking up on trends from other food categories rather than staying purely within snus. Mango is a good example of this approach; it mirrors the kind of mango flavour trends you see in ice cream. Right now, mango-chilli is really taking off in Norway – combining sweet tropical fruit with a spicy kick. However, we deliberately avoid candy-style flavours since we don't want to risk appealing to children or minors.

In terms of markets, we want to grow both the BAKD and NAKD brands significantly in Germany. Baked is the more complex of the two, and NAKD is already patented but not yet cleared for the German market. 

"BAKD" Snus from Nor — loose white Snus for mixing yourself. Shown here in the "Salted Licorice" variety with 8 mg/g. A patented product that, according to the manufacturer, is truly one of a kind and is set to become available in export markets soon.

Conclusion: Nor between innovation and regulation

Nor is a brand born out of genuine industry expertise—founded by people who know the snus industry from the inside. As this conversation makes clear: innovation, sustainability, and navigating regulatory pressures are not peripheral issues for Nor, but rather define the very core of the brand. This is particularly evident in the Norwegian standardized packaging regulations that have been in place since 2018: Anyone who wants to succeed in the Norwegian market must work with fewer design elements while still remaining recognizable.

Nor is focusing on Germany as its next growth market, with regulatory developments at the EU level setting the pace. A revised Tobacco Products Directive, which is intended to uniformly regulate nicotine pouches for the first time, is expected no earlier than between 2027 and 2028. It remains to be seen what the market will look like by then and what role compostable formats such as NAKD Pods will play in it.

Editor’s note: At InterTabac 2026, we followed two sessions relevant to regulation on TPD2 and TPD3. On April 2, 2026, the EU Commission published its evaluation of TPD2. It sees the biggest gap in the current legal framework in flavors, disposable e-cigarettes, and nicotine pouches, for which there are still no harmonized EU rules. TPD3 is intended to close the existing gap for tobacco-free nicotine pouches. TED2 is set to redefine raw tobacco across the EU and introduce a minimum rate of 0 euros per kilogram. You can find a detailed overview of the key insights here.