April 2026: PMI Scales Back ZYN Production Schedule in Owensboro Amid Demand Normalization
Philip Morris International (PMI) will reduce part of its ZYN nicotine pouch production schedule at its Swedish Match facility in Owensboro, Kentucky, shifting some operations from a continuous 24/7 model to a 24/5 schedule starting around July 2026. The adjustment primarily reflects changing market conditions, with production currently exceeding demand following a period of rapid expansion. PMI emphasized that this is not a closure or relocation, but a normalization of output after earlier capacity increases. The Owensboro site remains a central hub for U.S. ZYN production, and PMI may return to a full 24/7 schedule if demand strengthens again.
The transition will follow existing labor agreements, with employees reverting to standard schedules and receiving advance notice, while PMI works with union leadership on staffing and shift arrangements. Crucially, the change will not impact all operations. Yet-to-be-launched ZYN Ultra production and maintenance operations are expected to remain on a 24/7 schedule, ensuring continued output for key product lines.
February 2026: PMI’s Colorado ZYN Factory Begins Early Production
Philip Morris International (PMI) is progressing with construction of a $600 million facility in Colorado to produce ZYN nicotine pouches. Although the plant is not yet fully complete, it has already begun limited production. The facility is located on a roughly 150-acre site near the future intersection of 48th Avenue and Harvest Road, south of Denver International Airport. PMI broke ground on the project in December 2024 and began producing pouches in September 2025. The development broadly remains in line with the company’s initial timeline, which envisioned preliminary operations in late 2025 and full operations in 2026.
The factory is dedicated exclusively to ZYN nicotine pouches and will operate as a light manufacturing site covering approximately 600,000 square feet. The project includes a ground-floor area of about 448,237 square feet and elevated surfaces totaling roughly 285,577 square feet, accommodating the main buildings and manufacturing equipment. Activities at the facility include production, processing, and packaging. Once operational, the facility is projected to support around 500 direct positions and approximately 1,000 indirect jobs in the state as production ramps up.
September 2025: ZYN sales growth accelerated after the end of ZYN shortage
ZYN-owner Philip Morris International (PMI) announced that as the ZYN inventories at the distributors, wholesalers and retailers normalize, ZYN sales to the consumers increased by +32% in July-August 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Amid intensifying competition from VELO Plus (Reynolds American) and soon-to-be-launched on! Plus (Altria), PMI is increasing promotional ZYN activity in the U.S. and expects the ZYN shipment (sales to the distributors & wholesalers) volume growth to be broadly in line with offtake (consumer purchase) growth in the second half of 2025.
July 2025: ZYN shortage is over
Folllowing 15 months of supply shortage, ZYN-owner Philip Morris International (PMI) confimed that distributor restocking is completed and retail availability is approaching to normal levels. Consequent to improved retail availability (push) and strong consumer demand (pull), each store is now selling 82 cans per week after remaining stagnant around 65-70 can per week during 2024. As the ZYN supply is back to normal, PMI will restart its commercial activities and consumer activation programs. ZYN’s market share in the U.S. is also recovering: in the second quarter of 2025, ZYN reached 61.2% volume share – which corresponds to 69.3% value share due higher ZYN retail prices. In the month of June 2025, ZYN sales volume increased 36% year-on-year basis – only 2pp less than the category growth (i.e. the smallest gap between ZYN and category growth since the onset of the ZYN supply shortage in mid-2024).
April 2025: ZYN shortage will fully come to an end in Q3 2025
ZYN-owner Philip Morris International (PMI) accelerated one planned step in the production capacity expansion at the Owensboro plant and consequently, increased the ZYN shipments to the distributors at the end of March 2025. Despite the pull-forward in the initial distributor restocking, the flow-through of the additional shipments to the retail is still limited and we are yet to observe a meaningful impact on in-store availability of ZYN. PMI targets a full normalization of the ZYN supply situation in Q3 2025 (somewhere from July 2025 to September 2025).
PMI continues to work on increasing ZYN production capacity in the Owensboro, Kentucky factory and is building a second ZYN manufacturing site in Colorado. The production in Colorado site will commence in early 2026. On many occasions, PMI re-iterated its commitment to investing in U.S. manufacturing in order to create local jobs and make economic contribution to the country.
February 2025: ZYN shortage will fully come to an end in the second half of 2025
ZYN-owner, Philip Morris International (PMI) announced that the summer peak (Q2-Q3 2024) of ZYN shortage is over and the supply of ZYN stock to the market has gradually improved in line with the production capacity expansions. Nevertheless, ZYN still experiences some out-of-stocks at the retail due to the strong underlying consumer demand and PMI now targets full normalization of ZYN supply only in the second half of 2025. Nevertheless, sequential (quarter-on-quarter) ZYN volume growth is back to outpacing the nicotine pouch category growth in the final quarter of 2024.
PMI continues to target around 900 million cans of capacity for the full year from the Kentucky facility, and, as the supply of ZYN stock continues to improve, look to further expand growth beyond the existing consumer base to other nicotine users. The new ZYN factory in Colorado will become operational in early 2026.
October 2024: ZYN shortage will come to an end before the end of the year
At the Q3 2024 earnings release, ZYN-owner, Philip Morris International (PMI) announced that ZYN shipments to the retail will match consumer demand at some point during Q4 2024. As the ZYN supply eventually matches the demand, the shortage – which started in April 2024 – will come to an end after a period of 7 to 8 months.
As PMI progressively increases the ZYN production volumes, the ZYN shipments to the US market sequential accelerated to a record high 149 million cans in the third quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the short supply, PMI has taken multiple ¢15 cent per can list price increases since April 2024. Moreover, PMI scaled down the promotional and commercial activity to prioritize meeting the needs of the existing consumers over growing ZYN’s consumer base.
With ongoing efforts to increase ZYN’s US production capacity to around 900 million cans for the full year of 2025, and significant expansion beyond 2025 from the planned new facility in Colorado, PMI is getting prepared to meet the ever-growing ZYN demand in the years to come. See below for further details on PMI’s planned capacity expansion.
August 2024: Philip Morris International (PMI) will expand the production capacity of ZYN nicotine pouch manufacturing facility in Owensboro, Kentucky
Philip Morris International (PMI) announced an investment of $232 million to expand production capacity of ZYN nicotine pouch manufacturing facility in Owensboro, Kentucky. The expansion is expected to create an additional 450 direct jobs (i.e. ~40% increase in the plant’s workforce) and 410 indirect jobs for the commonwealth of Kentucky.
Construction of the expanded facility is already underway, including the addition of more production space, and progressive production increases are expected during the project. Completion is targeted by the second quarter of 2025. In addition to facility expansion and ongoing optimization of processes to increase capacity progressively over the coming quarters, the Kentucky facility will move from a 24-hour, five-days-per-week schedule to a 24-hour, seven-days-per-week schedule to boost production starting in the fourth quarter of this year. The Swedish Match Owensboro facility currently has about 1,100 employees. The ongoing expansion of the facility in Kentucky is expected to provide around 900 million cans of capacity for 2025.
Expansion of the Owensboro, Kentucky facility comes in addition to the construction of a new nicotine pouch manufacturing facility in Aurora, Colorado (- see below for further details). The Aurora facility and Owensboro expansion will provide the capacity needed in the near- and mid-term to meet the current growth rate of ZYN in the US.
July 2024: Philip Morris International (PMI) will build a US$600-million nicotine pouch manufacturing facility in Aurora, Colorado
Philip Morris International (PMI) announces an investment of $600 million over the next two years to open a new nicotine pouch manufacturing facility in Aurora, Colorado amid ZYN supply shortage (- resulting in lack of ZYN stock at the retail level since May 2024). The facility is expected to create 500 direct jobs with ongoing annual economic impact of $550 million and an additional 1,000 indirect jobs for the State of Colorado. PMI’s US affiliate plans to break ground on the new facility later this year and to begin preliminary operations by the end of 2025 with regular production starting in 2026.
PMI is also currently working to increase ZYN oral nicotine pouch production at its Owensboro, Kentucky facility. Ongoing investments in both Owensboro and Aurora are designed to provide sufficient capacity in the near and mid-term for the current adoption growth rate of ZYN in the US, as well as allowing spare capacity for exports.
PMI is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut and its US affiliates have more than 2,300 employees. PMI’s US affiliates operate smoke-free product manufacturing facilities including the Owensboro, Kentucky plant (for ZYN nicotine pouches) and the Wilson, North Carolina plant (for HEETS heated tobacco sticks). In addition, PMI has a regional office in Richmond, Virginia.
June 2024: The supply shortage and consequent stock-outs at the retailers continue to have an adverse effect on ZYN’s growth momentum in the US
The supply shortage and consequent lack of ZYN stock at the retailers continue to have an adverse effect on ZYN’s growth momentum in the US. In Q1 2024, Philip Morris International (PMI) reported a shipment volume of 131.6Mn ZYN cans in the US, corresponding to +79.7% year-on-year growth. The shipment growth (reported by PMI) was in line with the (retail) consumer off-take growth (reported by NielsenIQ) – which peaked just above 80% in April 2024. Since then, ZYN’s off-take growth is down to 50%.
PMI shipped 384.8Mn ZYN cans to the US market in 2023 and initially guided 520Mn case for 2024. PMI later increased the FY24 guidance to 560Mn cans and, most recently at the DB Global Consumer Conference, re-iterated its guidance. Thereby, PMI’s most recent guidance implies 45.5% year-on-year growth – well-below the consumer off-take growth observed so far at any point this year. In the absence of supply-chain constraints, PMI could achieve 650Mn cans volume in FY24 in the US according to our internal estimates – corresponding to an estimated 90Mn cans in lost volume. Taking advantage of the supply shortages and in an attempt to (financially) compensate for the lost volume, PMI is hiking ZYN price (resulting in up to ¢50 increase in the Retail Sales Price).
Winner of ZYN’s stock-outs? Swisher’s Rogue and BAT’s VELO with year-on-year consumer off-take growth reaching +90%-100% range most recently. Recall that, at the H1 2024 Pre-close Update, BAT mentioned that the early results from the phased roll-out of refreshed VELO brand expression are encouraging. For further details: BAT – H1 2024 Pre-close Update.
June 2024: ZYN supply will progressively improve in Q2 and Q3 2024
At the DB Global Consumer Conference, PMI states that ZYN’s strong growth in the US is creating some tension on retail availability whether at the level of retailer or SKU. Capacity expansion (at the existing US factory) is underway and the supply of ZYN stock should progressively improve in Q2 and Q3 – with the aim to be back to a normal level in the course of Q4 2024.
PMI re-confirms 560Mn cans volume target for ZYN in the US in 2024 despite the supply challenges. Moreover, PMI is now working on a new location in the US for the production of ZYN in 2025.
May 2024: ZYN is facing shortage in the US
Retailers in several US states, including New York, New Jersey, and Florida, are reportedly experiencing ZYN stock-outs. The supply shortage started in April 2024 and has been ongoing for several weeks. At an earlier occasion, PMI confirmed that ZYN’s growth “is creating some tensions on the supply chain”. As the retail stockouts become more widespread, “ZYN Shortage May 2024” has become a trending search topic and new words, like Zynpocalypse, are invented to describe the gravity of the situation.
Meanwhile, some loyal ZYN users are speculating about the appetite-suppressing effects of the nicotine and tout ZYN as the new (make-believe) weight-loss quick fix (an inexpensive hack to replace new blockbuster drug, Ozempic) – which drives a further surge in the popularity of ZYN for its stimulant effects.
March 2024: ZYN factory fire
On March 11, 2024, a fire broke out in Swedish Match’s factory in the district of Gullbergsvass in Gothenburg, Sweden. However, it is not true that the ZYN factory burned down to ashes. The fire, which only affected a contained area, was put out in less than two hours and the production quickly resumed at the site without causing a major disruption in ZYN production.
It was widely speculated in the online channels that the fire at ZYN factory later triggered the ZYN shortage in the US. However, ZYN factory fire in Sweden has nothing to do with the supply of ZYN stock to the US market as the ZYN products sold in the US are exclusively produced in Swedish Match’s Owensboro factory in Kentucky.
