In our series of articles about the people behind Swedish Smokeless’ success, we return to Gevorg Avanesyan. Avanesyan is our Travel Retail Director for the Middle East and Africa. In his work, he builds and maintains a huge network of contacts all around the world. When it comes to business, he approaches it with the logic of a chess master.
Chess as a way of life
“Chess is my greatest passion. It teaches you to think several moves ahead, plan, calculate – and always keep the bigger picture in view,” he says. “I come to work to win, not to play for a draw or accept defeat. When we decide, figuratively speaking, to fly the plane in a certain direction, we don’t land without results.”
“I come to work to win, not to play for a draw or accept defeat” – Gevorg Avanesyan
His passion for the game started when he was a child. His father, uncles and their friends used to play tournaments at their house at the weekends. Young Gevorg watched, learned and soon started playing the game himself. But while he says that he “goes to work to win, not settle for a draw” it is also about learning from defeat:
“If I have worked on closing a deal and we can’t reach an agreement with the customer, I always try to learn from the experience. I take some time to look at the situation from different angles, evaluate and come back with a new solution.”
The joy of meeting new people
In his work, Avanesyan travels extensively and meet many people. This is something he has always enjoyed:
“I have been traveling to different countries during my work not only at Swedish Smokeless but wherever I worked. I like traveling in business and have a great interest in, and respect for, other cultures. That attitude and interest has always helped me to have good relations with almost everyone I met, whether at a conference, a private occasion, and an exhibition.”
A finance graduate, Avanesyan spent years in banking and credit institutions before joining GN LLC and Swedish Smokeless in 2021 in search of fresh challenges.
“My previous job had become routine. Here at GN and Swedish Smokeless, everything started happening – new meetings, contracts, negotiations. It gave me completely new energy.”
Armenia and Sweden – distant but close
Swedish Smokeless Solutions was previously known as GN Tobacco. GN stands for Gevorg Nalbandyan, a visionary entrepreneur who came to Sweden in his 20s and fell in love with snus. He started a number of businesses and later moved back to his native Armenia to continue building on the conglomerate.
This is why the business is defined by both Swedish and Armenian culture. And also why some of our people work in Enköping, Järfälla and Stockholm, whilst others are at GN LLC in Yerevan. Despite the long geographical and cultural distance between the two countries, there are some common traits. Armenia, like Sweden, is a small country with a comparably small population. But Armenians have made a disproportionately large impact on the world, similar to Swedes.
“I actually think that Armenian people are genetically predisposed to succeed. The long and difficult history developed the power of survival among Armenians. I don’t think anyone would dispute that Armenians are successful internationally. And it is mostly due to the Armenian people being very industrious and goal oriented. The reason for this, as I said before, is the hardship faced during centuries,” says Avanesyan.
“It is a human nature to become lazy when your life conditions are soft and provided. When you come from a difficult and challenging life, you want to succeed in order to not have to go back to that.”
From Doha to a Global Footprint
Avanesyan runs the duty free sales of Swedish Smokeless products. Over the past few years, brands like White Fox have become the most sold products on the nicotine pouch segment in duty free channels.
“It is true that we have been very successful in duty free. The company’s first major duty-free listing launched in mid-2021 at Hamad International Airport in Doha. Within two years, sales there grew by about 70 percent in 2023 versus 2022. Today we have our products in 14 duty-free locations, including Bahrain and Oman, Egypt (five cities, seven outlets) and Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Kuwait and Jordan. Also, in 2024 the brand entered India via Mumbai International Airport.”
The next step in the plan is to utilize the presence in the duty free stores to make our products available in the countries as well. Much of this region’s legislation is modelled on the UAE, which already permits snus and nicotine pouches. Similar approvals are expected elsewhere in 2025, opening the door to further expansion.
Keeping the pace
International sales is a complicated discipline. Having fantastic products but no connections makes it slow. Having an amazing global network of contacts but mediocre products does not help either. Swedish Smokeless has a large portfolio of first-rate products within snus, chewing tobacco and nicotine pouches.
So Gevorg Avanesyan is working intensively on building and maintaining his relationships with the duty-free chains. The work comes with a lot of traveling. He recently attended the Asia-Pacific Duty-Free Conference in Mumbai, meeting more than 270 industry participants. But he doesn’t get tired of traveling and meeting new people.
“Many contacts are just a phone call or teams meeting away. But nothing beats meeting people face-to-face, especially for the first time and when building deeper relationships. And I am confident these discussions will translate into long-term partnerships.”
For Avanesyan, success is measured not only in numbers but in impact:
“Excellence has no limits. If you think everything is perfect, you leave no room for growth. We still have plenty to do – but we have a strong team, the necessary resources and, most important, a product people want. That gives us both the right and the duty to keep moving forward.”
By Nelli Grigoryan
