VELO VS LYFT – What’s the story?

Recently we’ve been asked why we don’t stock Lyft nicotine pouches, given its popularity in Sweden. Here’s the story …

We understand that British American Tobacco (BAT) launched nicotine pouches for the first time in 2018. In Sweden (and a large number of markets in Europe) they marketed them under the brand name LYFT, while the same pouches were launched under the brand name VELO in the United States.

LYFT quickly gained traction in Sweden and Russia. During the same period VELO grew to reportedly represent more than 10% of the ‘oral market’ in the United States.

So, BAT found themselves in a situation where they had one product doing really really well but being marketed as two different brands. For a multinational such as BAT, which is almost always focussed on building truly global brands, this represented a dilemma.

To build a truly global brand they only had one option: Choose one brand to back and invest in. Would it be LYFT or VELO?

As it happened in late 2019 BAT announced that during 2020, they would transition to marketing their nicotine pouches under the brand name VELO everywhere (except Sweden where we understand that Lyft still happily exists and continues to do well).

In short, VELO and LYFT are the same nicotine pouches. However, as of 2020 they are being sold under the Velo brand name everywhere in the world except Sweden.

As for turning VELO into a global brand? Well BAT is definitely investing in creating awareness behind VELO. One example is their recent sponsorship deal with the McLaren Formula 1 team, where VELO is prominently displayed.

So, if you feel like a LYFT nicotine pouch, please go and check whether some of our VELO pouches here meet your needs – knowing that one way or the other, there’s more than just a bit of LYFT in them!