The company manufactures snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff, tobacco- and nicotine-free pouch products, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, cigars, matches, lighters, and other fire products with operations in Sweden, Denmark, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the Philippines.

Despite some shareholder resistance, by late November 2022 Philip Morris had acquired over 90% ownership, allowing it to begin the compulsory purchase of remaining shares and de-list Swedish Match from the stock market.

[7][10][9][11] During parts of its existence, most recently between 2010 and 2015, the company has been headquartered in the so-called Matchstick Palace, commissioned by Ivar Kreuger in the late 1920s.

[12][13] In 1917, Ivar Kreuger founded Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (STAB) in Jönköping (also known as "City of the matches").

[7][15][18] Following the death of Ivar Kreuger in 1932, the ownership structure in STAB changed and a number of factories were liquidated.

[7] In 1980, Svenska Tändsticks AB changed its name to Swedish Match to create unity throughout the group.

The monopoly was introduced in order to give the government funds to finance the country's military defense and a new national pension system.

[7][23][9] In 1971, the ownership of the tobacco group was transferred to Statsföretag, the Swedish Sovereign Wealth Fund, which in 1984 was renamed Procordia.

In 1994, Swedish Match functioned as an independent company and was later, in 1996, listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm AB and on Nasdaq.

[35][36][37] In 2009, Swedish Match entered an agreement with Philip Morris International and formed the joint venture company SMPM International, with equal stakes owned by each of the two partners, for exploring and developing new markets for snus and other smokefree tobacco products outside Scandinavia and the United States.

The collaboration placed test markets in Tel Aviv, Israel; St. Petersburg, Russia; Taiwan; and nationwide Canada.

[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] In 2010, Swedish Match and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) formed a new company specialized in cigars.

[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66]In 2022, Swedish Match's shares hit record high as Philip Morris International (PMI) closed a $16 billion dollar deal with the company.

[56] The Europe division develops, manufactures, markets and sells snus, nicotine pouches and other smokeless products.

[56][68] The US Division produces chewing tobacco, cigars, moist snuff and nicotine pouches for the American market.

[56][68] The Lights division manufactures and markets matches and lighters, with production in Brazil, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Sweden.

[56][68] Swedish Match operates in eleven countries and has production units in seven of those: Brazil, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden and the US.

[75][80] Swedish Match's share was even greater in the recent past, as a series of acquisitions between 1999 and 2010 including General Cigar and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) which is the world's largest cigar producer and manufactures more than 50 percent of the world's pipe tobacco.

[81] Swedish Match's cigar business is now limited to machine-made mass-production brands such as White Owl and Garcia y Vega.

The main competitors, in descending order, were National Tobacco, Swisher, and BAT (Reynolds American).

In Sweden, the main competitors, in descending order, were Imperial Brands, BAT, and Japan Tobacco International.

[56] In the US, Swedish Match produces and distributes the Longhorn, Timber Wolf and Red Man brands of moist snuff.

Snus is made using a steam heat process (much like pasteurisation) and is usually placed under the upper lip,[78] which means that spitting is not necessary.