Category Management | Smokeless
Modern Oral Nicotine Sales B
Smokeless tobacco
Smokeless category sales have climbed at c-stores
enjoyed strong sales
nicotine segment lifting the category. Retailers are
during the pandemic,
optimistic about the category in the year ahead, but
but can the category maintain the momentum in 2021? Erin Del Conte • Executive Editor
during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the modern oral
also eyeing both regulatory and economic headwinds for the remainder of 2021. Sales of smokeless tobacco rang in at $8.30 billion, up 6.4% for the 52 weeks ending April 18, 2021, according to market research firm IRI’s total convenience store data. Sales were led by the spitless segment, which saw a 54.1% rise in dollar sales and a 58.3.% rise in unit sales for the period. Chewing tobacco/snuff, by contrast, saw dollar sales tick up 1.4% and unit sales fall by 7.6%. “Smokeless and other tobacco consumers are continuing to evolve,” said Kraig Knudsen, tobacco category manager for Circle K. Circle K’s parent company, Couche-Tard, operates more than 14,200 stores in 26 countries and territories. “Twenty years ago,
