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Röda Lacket snus

Röda Lacket - originally from Sweden's largest tobacco fields

The Russians burned the city of Norrköping to the ground. Forty years later, a young man arrived with the permission to grow tobacco. Within just a few decades, he made sure that an area big as 1500 tennis courts was covered with yellow leaves. The young man manufactured seven different qualities of snus. The most famous: Röda lacket.

He was only 25 years old and he wanted to manufacture snus

The young man came from the Bergslagen mining region up north. His name was Petter Swartz. He introduced the Italian double-entry bookkeping in the city and refused to let go of his dream; to start his own snus factory. It started as a rather humble operation in the year 1753, but things were soon about to change. Petter had called on his brother, Olof Swartz, and together they created an efficient manufacturing process from bottom up. Horses propelled the grinder via a giant cog-wheel, (the steam engine had barely been invented at this time). Soon they turned to water for powering their impressive factory complex. The tobacco fields grew - when production was at its peak, they covered an area of almost 395000 square meters - or just above 1500 tennis courts. The harvested tobacco was air cured in three gigantic wooden barns that were painted in the typical red, Swedish color. Several different recipes became the foundation of the Swartz empire.

The most famous and also most successful was Röda Lacket (The Red Seal) which was soon sold in Stockholm and later all over the country. The company was passed on from father to son along with the secret snus through six generations and needless to say, the family became very wealthy. In fact, the city of Norrköping have the Swartzes to thank for both their library and arts museum.

Not only was Petter Swartz a generous man. He was also a smart man. In the year 1772 he founded a private school where students were taught both double-entry bookkeeping and carpentry. These skills were needed in the snus business. Röda Lacket went through both better and worse times relatively unharmed, (which is more than you could say about its sister brand, Gröna Lacket - The Green Seal). In fact the brand's success delayed the closing of the tobacco harvesting in Norrköping by several years. In the year 1968, just after the students started to revolting in Europe, the Röda Lacket enjoyed an unexpected all-time high in sales. We can't say for sure whether or not this was an effect of the red, socialistic wave that swept over the world. We do have a clue, though - in Sweden, these were the times for peace, love and snus.

Swedish Match Logo

Rigorous control - from plant to pouch


When hi-tech meets a 200 year-old tradition.


With the character of the northernmost tobacco fields in the world.