Philip Morris International's Swedish Match has sold the snus factory in Roma on Gotland — the plant it acquired with Gotlandssnus in 2018 — to Free Factory AB, part of the Habit Factory i Norden group owned by Ara Abrahamian, the former Swedish Olympic wrestler. The ownership transferred on 1 October 2026, according to Swedish Match's own press release and Dagens industri.

It is a property deal with a storyline attached: the multinational that owns ZYN is letting go of a piece of Swedish snus heritage, and a local entrepreneur says he wants to start making snus there again.

What was actually sold

The transaction covers the factory building — around 4,600 square metres on a 20,000 square metre plot in the old sugar mill at Roma — plus some assets: IT equipment, office and logistics gear. Notably, it does not include any manufacturing operations, because there are none left to sell.

Swedish Match announced in October 2025 that it would close the Roma plant and move production mainly to its Kungälv facility. Around 60 employees on Gotland were affected by that decision. Production in Roma ended in March 2026. "Fastigheten har varit en viktig del av Swedish Matchs verksamhet sedan bolaget förvärvade Gotlandssnus år 2018," the company said in the sale announcement — the facility "played an important part" in developing and manufacturing its snus and nicotine portfolio.

Who is buying

Ara Abrahamian built his public profile as a wrestler, winning medals for Sweden at world championship and Olympic level, before turning to business. He is buying through Free Factory AB, which belongs to Habit Factory i Norden AB — a company he has been building for six years, with snus manufacturing experience from a plant in Norsborg.

According to Helagotland, which has followed the story since November 2025, the plan is to restart snus production in Roma. Abrahamian has previously said he hopes to eventually employ 15 to 20 people there, and Hansasnus founder Thomas Mellin — who helped set up the Norsborg facility — has spoken about scaling up production on Gotland together with him. The exact product lineup and timeline have not been published; Swedish Match said before the sale that it could not share further details until the transaction was completed. "Fastigheten erbjuder goda möjligheter för framtida utveckling," Abrahamian told Dagens industri.

Why it matters for the pouch market

Three threads come together in this deal.

ZYN's parent is consolidating, not expanding, traditional snus capacity. Since PMI took Swedish Match private in 2022, the manufacturing footprint has been rationalised around the categories that are actually growing — nicotine pouches above all. Moving Roma's output to Kungälv is part of that shift: fewer, bigger plants for snus, with the investment energy going to pouches.

Independent producers are filling the space multinationals vacate. The Roma shutdown left a gap on an island where snus is a matter of local identity — Helagotland's coverage has tracked both Abrahamian's plans and Hansasnus' ambitions from the start. A small-scale producer restarting in a closed big-brand factory is the inverse of the usual industry story, and worth watching: if the demand shift to tobacco-free pouches keeps hollowing out traditional snus volumes, expect more heritage capacity to change hands at exactly this kind of discount.

The Sweden context is uniquely weird. Snus can be manufactured and sold freely at home, but the EU's snus export ban means Swedish production lives or dies on the domestic market — while tobacco-free pouches face no such restriction across the bloc. That asymmetry is precisely why pouches keep winning shelf space from snus, and why factories built for tobacco snus keep getting consolidated or sold. If Abrahamian's restart works, it will be because a niche player can live profitably in a market the giants no longer find worth optimising.

Whether the Roma plant actually produces snus again is still an open question — the buyer has announced intentions, not launched production. But the building changing hands marks the end of one chapter: ZYN's Swedish parent no longer owns a single square metre of the Gotland factory it bought in 2018.

Compare ZYN prices across retailers at PouchFinder.

---

SOURCES:

• Dagens industri: Swedish Match säljer snusfabrik i Roma till Ara Abrahamian (1 October 2026)
• Helagotland: Swedish Match säljer snusfabriken i Roma (1 October 2026, incl. Swedish Match press release: production ended March 2026, moved to Kungälv)
• Helagotland: Brottarlegendar räddar Lännakiosken – och satsar på snus i Roma (10 November 2025 — Abrahamian's 15–20 jobs plan)
• Helagotland: Här är uppstickarna – de satsar när snusjätten lägger ner i Roma (12 November 2025 — Hansasnus/Mellin plans)
• Dagens PS: Multijätten lade ned – nu räddar OS-brottaren snuset (1 October 2026 — factory 4,600 sqm / 20,000 sqm land, sale scope incl. IT/office/logistics assets, no manufacturing operations, PMI 2022 acquisition context)