“Se un pouch cade a terra, si decompone invece di restare semplicemente lì” — Nor in un’intervista con Snuzone

Cosa succede se un Sacchetti di nicotina usato cade a terra? Per la maggior parte dei marchi: niente. I tradizionali Sacchetti di nicotina non si decompongono completamente in natura, o lo fanno solo molto lentamente, e rappresentano quindi un impatto ambientale. Per evitarlo, il marchio norvegese Nor ha ripensato completamente il Sacchetti di nicotina: il "NAKD Pod". La promessa alla base: un pod alla nicotina senza bustina che si dissolve da solo nel giro di pochi giorni. Il pod è stato sviluppato da Den Norske Snusfabrikken AS, il primo produttore in Norvegia specializzato in Sacchetti di nicotina e Snus bianco. Tuttavia, il fatto che lo stabilimento sia ancora oggi l'unico del suo genere in Norvegia non era affatto scontato fin dall'inizio.

Intertabac, la più grande fiera specializzata al mondo per prodotti del tabacco e articoli per fumatori, tenutasi a Dortmund dal 15 al 17 settembre 2026, ha offerto a Nor l'occasione ideale per presentare il "NAKD Pod" a un pubblico internazionale di professionisti e per confrontarsi direttamente con il settore e il commercio.

I fatti più importanti su Nor

Interview mit 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.

I “NAKD Pods” non hanno involucro esterno. Alla loro formulazione viene aggiunto l’agar, un legante naturale e vegano, che ne rende superfluo l’uso. I pod vengono posizionati sotto il labbro superiore con il lato piatto rivolto verso l’alto, proprio come le tradizionali bustine di nicotina – non si sciolgono.

What can we expect from Nor in the future? Will there be new flavours, 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.

Lo «BAKD» Snus di Nor – snus bianco sfuso da miscelare autonomamente. Qui nella varietà «Salted Licorice» con 8 mg/g. Un prodotto brevettato che, secondo il produttore, non ha eguali e che presto sarà disponibile anche sui mercati di esportazione.

Conclusione: Nor, a cavallo tra innovazione e regolamentazione

Nor è un marchio nato da una genuina competenza nel settore, fondato da persone che conoscono l’industria dello snus dall’interno. Come emerge chiaramente da questa conversazione: innovazione, sostenibilità e gestione delle pressioni normative non sono questioni marginali per Nor, ma definiscono piuttosto l’essenza stessa del marchio. Ciò è particolarmente evidente nelle normative norvegesi sulla confezione standardizzata in vigore dal 2018: chiunque voglia avere successo sul mercato norvegese deve lavorare con un numero ridotto di elementi di design, pur rimanendo riconoscibile.

Nor punta sulla Germania come prossimo mercato di crescita, con gli sviluppi normativi a livello UE a dettare il ritmo. Una revisione della Direttiva sui prodotti del tabacco, volta a regolamentare in modo uniforme per la prima volta le bustine di nicotina, è prevista non prima del periodo compreso tra il 2027 e il 2028. Resta da vedere come sarà il mercato a quel punto e quale ruolo vi svolgeranno i formati compostabili come i NAKD Pods.

Nota della redazione: a InterTabac 2026 abbiamo seguito due sessioni rilevanti per la regolamentazione su TPD2 e TPD3. Il 2 aprile 2026 la Commissione europea ha pubblicato la sua valutazione della TPD2. Individua la principale lacuna dell’attuale quadro normativo negli aromi, nelle sigarette elettroniche monouso e nelle nicotine pouch, per le quali finora non esistono regole UE uniformi. La TPD3 dovrebbe colmare l’attuale lacuna relativa alle nicotine pouch senza tabacco. Con TED2, il tabacco grezzo dovrebbe essere ridefinito a livello UE e dovrebbe essere introdotta un’aliquota minima di 0 euro per chilogrammo. Una panoramica dettagliata delle conclusioni è disponibile qui.