When we meet online, it’s Iceland’s first real snow of the season—thick, fast, and relentless. Outside, the country seems to disappear under a white veil, but inside his Reykjavik office, Ragnar Bragi Sveinsson, the COO of ICE, is bright, steady, and unfazed. It’s the kind of contrast that defines Iceland itself—frozen on the surface, volcanic underneath—and the perfect backdrop for a conversation about a brand that’s quietly igniting a global nicotine revolution.
From a small factory not far from one of Iceland’s restless volcanoes, a new kind of fire is spreading. ICE—the sleek, white-pouched nicotine brand with a name as sharp as its origin—is rewriting what “smoking culture” means in the North and beyond.
Ragnar, speaks with an urgency that mirrors the product’s hit. “This started in 2016,” he says. “The first manufacturing machine came here to Iceland in 2017, and then… the first product was on market in 2019. And then it’s just been growing rapidly ever since.”
In just a few years, that growth has gone supernova. “We’re available perhaps in 23, 24, 25 countries,” Ragnar explains. “Our biggest markets are Finland, Iceland, Austria. We’re also big in South Africa. Last month we shipped our shipment to Nepal… this market is growing rapidly and one of the fastest growing big international markets in the world.”
ICE may come from a nation of only 400,000 people, but its ambitions are continental. Ragnar lists export zones the way a touring DJ rattles off cities. “Next step is of course to get to the holy mama, you know, to the US,” he laughs. The phrase lands half-joking, half-prophetic: the American market is the ultimate prize, the stage where giants fight.
Still, ICE was born on purity, not hype. The brand manufactures in Iceland under GMP and ISO-level standards, rivaling pharmaceutical facilities. “In Iceland we have state-of-the-art facilities,” Ragnar says. “We have really, really good GMP standards, ISO level standards as well … that are things that are I would say necessary for people in magazines to read.”
At its core, ICE’s rise reflects a shift in human behavior. Ragnar puts it bluntly: “There are a couple of things why the product has been taken by a storm.”
He breaks it down into two generations—the ones quitting cigarettes and the ones who never started. “The older generation that was smoking, they are quitting to smoke and they would rather go to nicotine pouches,” he says. “We see now a lot of these people are quitting vaping and going to nicotine pouches.”
Then come the younger adopters. “We never started smoking, but human being needs their nicotine. And therefore the new generation, they buy and try nicotine pouches.”
For them, ICE isn’t a cessation device—it’s a lifestyle hack. “It’s way more convenient,” Ragnar adds. “Doesn’t matter if you’re in an airplane, in a cinema, at a restaurant, or at home with your father-in-law, you can always use it.”
That practicality fused easily with Nordic tradition. “Of course this has something to do with tradition,” he explains. “The original, of course, from Sweden… people started with the snus., then it gained big land grab in Scandinavia… and I, that’s just where the origin is.”
Ragnar’s matter-of-fact tone can’t hide the momentum behind the movement. “You can see the shift that the big old traditional tobacco companies are doing,” he notes. “They are shifting the focus to modern oral category—which is this category.”
The ICE formula also leans into science. Ragnar is quick to defend nicotine from its tabloid villainy. “Nicotine is not all bad,” he says. “It has really good impact on dealing with focus level… it helps people having less hunger to eat… it helps a lot of people dealing with anxiety issues.”
That honesty is part of ICE’s appeal: vice, refined. Ragnar isn’t peddling purity; he’s offering control—a cleaner burn for a wired generation. “We will just keep being bigger and bigger… people trust the brand, people like the product really well,” he says. “You know, it’s gotten really, really good reception all over the world… and of course we want to take over the world, you know, that’s our plan.”
For now, the brand’s focus is growth, regulation, and speed. “We are in a competition with huge, huge players on the market,” Ragnar admits. “So we will have to be really, really quick on our feet and sophisticated to go around that.”
“We encourage people to convert into this product instead of the other,” Ragnar says. “And also just to encourage people in the Czech Republic to go and grab one ICE and enjoy the rest of the day.”
From the edge of a volcano to twenty-five nations, ICE is proof that even the coldest places can light a global spark.
