UK nicotine pouch sales are forecast to climb by almost 51 per cent this year.
The market was worth an estimated £384 million in 2025 and is expected to exceed £579 million by the end of 2026, according to Euromonitor figures.
That would represent an increase of at least £195 million in a single year, although the market remains much smaller than UK cigarette sales, which reached £11.7 billion in 2025.
Nicotine pouches are small, flavoured sachets placed between the lip and gum. They contain no tobacco leaf and produce no smoke or vapour, with nicotine absorbed through the lining of the mouth.
Major brands include British American Tobacco’s Velo, Philip Morris International’s Zyn and Japan Tobacco International’s Nordic Spirit.
Marketing accelerates before UK-wide ban
The rapid growth comes as companies increase advertising and sponsorship before a comprehensive ban is introduced.
Nordic Spirit sponsored a stage at the Boomtown festival in August, while Zyn has sponsored corner shop-themed stages at Parklife and Creamfields. Velo has been promoted at transport hubs and through BAT’s partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 team.
Harry Tattan-Birch, a senior research fellow at University College London, said companies were “really upping” their marketing.
He told the FT: “Like smokers, pouch users tend to stick with the same brand, so companies are doing all they can to get loyal customers now.”
BAT said its advertising was intended to explain the relatively new product category to smokers. The company said it had measures intended to limit youth exposure, including avoiding advertising within 200 metres of schools.
Use rises fastest among young men
The expanding market is being driven partly by rising uptake among young adults.
A UCL study published in The Lancet Public Health found that current nicotine pouch use among adults in Great Britain rose from 0.1 per cent in October 2020 to one per cent in March 2025.
Among people aged 16 to 24, use increased from 0.7 per cent in January 2022 to four per cent in March 2025. The rate reached 7.5 per cent among men aged 16 to 24.
However, most users already had experience of other nicotine products.
Among people who used pouches between 2022 and 2025, 56 per cent also smoked and 39 per cent vaped. The categories overlapped, while 16 per cent had never smoked regularly.
Pouches are also being used by a growing number of smokers attempting to quit. The proportion of recent quit attempts involving pouches rose from 2.6 per cent in 2020 to 6.5 per cent in 2025.
New age and advertising restrictions approaching
The Tobacco and Vapes Act received Royal Assent in April and will bring nicotine pouches under much tighter controls.
From 29 October 2026, it will become illegal across the UK to sell nicotine pouches and other consumer nicotine products to anyone under 18.
A comprehensive ban on advertising and sponsorship for non-medicinal nicotine products is intended to take effect on 1 June 2027. It will cover posters, paid online adverts, sponsored social media posts and commercial sponsorship agreements. Factual product information will still be permitted on retailers’ websites.
The government is also consulting on further restrictions, including plain white packaging, limited branding and tighter controls on flavour descriptions and shop displays.
Lower risk than smoking, but questions remain
Nicotine pouches avoid the toxic smoke created by burning tobacco. The UK Committee on Toxicity has concluded that using them as a complete replacement for cigarettes is “likely to be associated with a reduction in overall risk of adverse health effects”.
But the committee stressed that they are “not ‘harmless’ products”, warning there was not yet enough evidence to predict the long-term health effects of pouch use, particularly for higher-strength nicotine products.
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