Foreign exchange earnings from US sales of Swedish Match snus and moist snuff and a booming cigar market backed a 9 per cent increase in second-quarter consolidated operating profit, the company said.

“Sales for snus and moist snuff were flat and were positively impacted by a stronger US dollar versus the Swedish krona,” Swedish Match (SM) said. Market share for SM snus in Norway, the second largest Scandinavian market outside Sweden, fell 3.8 percentage points in the April-June reporting period to 56.8 per cent. At home, market share dipped one percentage point to 69.1 per cent.
Sales of other tobacco products, mostly cigars, gained 41 per cent to SEK 982 million (EUR 105 million). Cigar shipments in the US rose 9 per cent to 314 million sticks. At Scandinavian Tobacco Group, the cigar and pipe tobacco company in which SM holds a 49 per cent stake, sales rose 14 per cent.
SM snus sales at SEK 1.27 million represented about one third of gross second quarter revenue. Snus and most snuff operating profit fell 9 per cent to SEK 514 million. Consolidated operating profit, including lights and other tobacco products, rose 9 per cent to SEK 937 million.