Swedish Match announces $230 million expansion in Owensboro
Owensboro’s Swedish Match facility will undergo a $232 million expansion, creating an addition 450 jobs.
When the expansion opens in the second quarter of 2025, it is expected to have an annual economic impact of $277 million statewide, officials said Tuesday.
Although the expansion was announced Tuesday morning on the Owensboro riverfront, work is already underway at the Swedish Match plant on Industrial Drive.
Stacey Kennedy, president and CEO of Phillip Morris International’s U.S. business, said the company is already taking applications to fill the new positions. Phillip Morris International owns Swedish Match.
When asked about salaries, Kennedy said, “I know it’s almost twice the median income per household in the area.”
The expansion will produce Zyn, Swedish Match’s brand of flavored, tobacco-free nicotine pouches. Swedish Match has produced Zyn in Owensboro since 2016.
The Owensboro expansion is the second major announcement regarding the Zyn product line this year. In June, Phillip Morris officials announced plans to build a $550 million Zyn manufacturing facility in Colorado.
Officials touted the expansion at Swedish Match as both an economic development boost for Owensboro, and as a way to curb people from traditional tobacco use.
Kennedy told an audience of local and state officials the investment shows how Phillip Morris is “doubling down on our partnership with Kentucky,” and said the Zyn product will help “create a smoke-free future.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 28.3 million adults in the U.S. were smokers in 2021.
Kennedy said of the millions of U.S. smokers, “more and more of those folks are finding Zyn is a better alternative for them.”
According to WHYY, a Philadelphia NPR affiliate, Philip Morris sold 131.6 million cans of Zyn in the first quarter of this year.
“These are good paying jobs,” Kennedy said. “We are taking applications today.”
Gov. Andy Beshear told the audience the project will have a $415 million economic impact during construction, and that the project will require 2,800 construction jobs.
“This is the largest jobs announcement this year in the state of Kentucky,” Beshear said. “It’s going to have a huge impact in Daviess County and beyond.”
Beshear thanked state and local elected officials and said the state’s economic and industrial growth has been a “collective effort.”
“We can lift up this entire commonwealth and not move it to the right or left, but just move forward,” Beshear said.
Zyn has not received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, but it has been granted Modified Risk Tobacco Product status, which allows it to be sold and marketed.
Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Bowling Green Republican, and chairman of the federal government’s Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, said Congress has oversight of how the FDA approves products.
“Our commitment is to get the FDA to approve these products,” so people can transition away from traditional tobacco products, Guthrie said.
County Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen called the announcement “a tremendous win.” When what is now Swedish Match was established in Owensboro, there were 350 employees, Castlen said.
“We will be over four times that number with the expansion,” Castlen said.
Mayor Tom Watson said, when Beshear came to Owensboro to celebrate the opening of Big Rivers Electric Corporation’s headquarters downtown in 2023, he asked Beshear if there was a major economic development project coming for the community.
“I said, ‘Governor, are we a flyover county?’ and he said, ‘No, I’ve got something big’ ” for the community, Watson said,”He’s a man of his word.”
The announcement represents more than just the creation of jobs, Watson said.
“This project will support some careers,” Watson said.
By James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer