By Timothy S. Donahue
Top Takeaways:
- Sales surge: UK nicotine pouch sales are forecast to climb from £384 million in 2025 to more than £579 million this year.
- Marketing push: JTI, PMI and BAT are stepping up promotion as new advertising restrictions approach.
- Rules coming: The UK will ban advertising and sponsorship of non-medicinal nicotine products from next June.
The UK nicotine pouch market isn’t slowing down before new restrictions take effect. It is speeding up.
Sales are expected to exceed £579 million ($780 million) in 2026, up from an estimated £384 million last year, according to Euromonitor. That would mark more than 50% growth in a single year.
The increase comes as major tobacco companies expand marketing for their nicotine pouch brands ahead of a UK-wide ban on advertising and sponsorship of non-medicinal nicotine products, which takes effect next June.
Japan Tobacco International’s Nordic Spirit sponsored a stage at the Boomtown Festival in August. Philip Morris International, which sells Zyn, has sponsored corner shop-themed stages at festivals such as Parklife and Creamfields. British American Tobacco is heavily promoting Velo at UK transport hubs and through its partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 team, according to a report from the Financial Times.
Harry Tattan-Birch, a senior research fellow at University College London, told media that tobacco companies were “really upping” their pouch marketing. The impending restrictions provide an obvious incentive to build brand recognition now. “Like smokers, pouch users tend to stick with the same brand, so companies are doing all they can to get loyal customers now,” Tattan-Birch said.
The market has grown rapidly. The Euromonitor data show UK pouch sales rising from a small market in 2020 to about £230 million in 2024, £384 million last year, and a projected £579 million-plus this year. Despite that growth, pouches remain a fraction of the £11.7 billion UK cigarette market in 2025.
The upcoming advertising restrictions could significantly change how companies compete for the growing category.
BAT’s Western Europe area director, Asli Ertonguc, said the company has sought to advertise Velo “everywhere relevant” in the UK because the relatively new category needs to be explained to smokers.
She said BAT has already “adjusted our plans to be ready for the [marketing] ban” and is allocating advertising spending “in line with the future changes.”
Ertonguc also said that BAT cannot fully control whether teenagers are interested in the products, but it has guidelines intended to reduce youth appeal, including prohibiting advertising within 200 meters of a school.
The category’s economics also help explain its growth. Pouches typically cost about £5 per can, and consumers average about three cans a week, according to e-commerce retailer Haypp. That makes pouch use considerably cheaper than smoking and roughly comparable to vaping, depending on consumption patterns.
Tobacco companies argue that maintaining the ability to communicate with adult smokers about nicotine pouches and other smoke-free products is important if those products are to compete with cigarettes. Critics counter that increasingly visible marketing is exposing the category to young people and non-smokers.
