Stockholm's most exclusive snuff shop is run by a 19-year-old - fuelled by drive and entrepreneurial spirit. The Zielkowski family started the first Nikoteket many years ago at home in Söderköping, and when the time came to expand the business, Liam, who had just come of age, had to pack his bags and move from a small town to a big city to run it. He sees the fact that he doesn't snuff or vejpar himself as an advantage.
On Slöjdgatan around the corner from Hötorget is Liam's Nikoteket shop. Here, the snuff boxes are lined up like jewellery in a jewellery store, the atmosphere breathes exclusivity more than a tobacco kiosk, and the staff wear uniform, proper clothing. All that is, of course, the whole business idea, developed by mum and dad at home in Norrköping. They are also behind the interior design and to some extent the operation here. Liam Zielkowski, who is the store manager and cheerfully introduces himself in clear East Gothic.
- My parents - my mum and dad - started Fix candy and tobacco in Söderköping in 2009. At first it was called Fix candy and video, when there was video before Netflix and so on. Back then, there weren't that many types of vejp and it was all about cigars. But above all, they had a lot of snuff with over 30 varieties. It was very much at that time. They were big on sweets, they had around 600 varieties and were the largest in Östergötland, says Liam
That kiosk had already been there for 30 years when the family took over - and pretty soon they started to find their niche, which was simply to have more of everything.
- But we have to jump forward to 2016 or so, when white snus started to take off, when it became really big. I think the interest in having a large range has always been a thing in our family. To be the biggest, the most beautiful and the best. We're not going to bring in five varieties of anything. If we're going to do something, we'll do it 110 per cent.
Working full time since secondary school
Liam was born in 2005, so the home shop is a big part of his upbringing and he has worked in it since primary school age. As a teenager, he was largely responsible for whipping up an interest in Söderköping's big snuff shop at Tiktok. The 'most of everything' concept was successful - and people came from far and wide to buy the odd brands and flavours as if they were sweets.
- You have followed it since you were a little boy. I turned 18 last year, but most people think I'm older. It was two years ago that we started planning to open this store in Stockholm and I would go with my dad and meet the salespeople and the managers of these billion-dollar companies, and they were like "Who is this?" "No, but this is my store manager," my dad replied," Liam laughs.
Skipped high school
He speaks with pride about the spirit of entrepreneurship and enterprise that he grew up with.
- My parents did everything themselves from 2009 and have taken a total of ten weeks' holiday in 15 years. I was their first employee. When I was 15, 16, everything started happening with white snuff and we started bringing in a lot more products. So since then I've been working full time and I kind of left school in ninth grade. I never went to high school.
"Didn't realise anything at first"
Liam's shop at Hötorget then opened in July 2023, when he had just come of age.
It is very young...
- Haha, yes ... but I don't really think like that. But to be honest, you didn't realise anything in the beginning. I had worked in that store all the time and then out of nowhere "now we're going to open a new store in Stockholm". And I was like, "Well, who's going to work there then?" "Yes, but it's you". "Well, okay." It came very quickly like that.
Just moving to another city at that age, moreover by yourself, what was it like?
- Yes, but moving to Stockholm, that's what was shocking for me. I've only lived with my parents and my family before. Apart from my brother playing tennis and living in Spain for two years, I've never been away from any family member for any length of time. And I've always been a person who likes to be around people, preferably those I feel closest to.
Have you left friends behind?
- I didn't have any directly, but more parents, cousins, all these. But moving here was an opportunity, I felt. This chance that I get here, it doesn't really exist. I've already started my life now, and people my age usually don't even know what they're going to study. So it feels good to have crossed that threshold.
Did you know anyone here in Stockholm?
- No, it wasn't. The first time I came to Stockholm at all was when we were looking at premises here. I've never travelled outside Norrköping, so that was also something to see, they walk differently here, they dress differently. Restaurants everywhere, shopping centres, luxury brands, you know. I've never seen that before.
What is it like now, one year later? Have you got to know people?
- So I always answer when I get such questions from salespeople and others. When they say I have to take holidays and stuff. I haven't taken a holiday for three years now - since I started working for my parents. And I don't plan to do that either. But for me, when you're doing something you love and find so damn fun, you never feel like you're "working". If you do something you find boring, you get worn out and need time off, but that's not the case for me. The job here is also quite different and I chat to customers every day about all sorts of things. It has almost become a friendship connection with some. And then I live with my closest colleague too.
First beer after 100 million
The closest colleague and flat-sharer is Linus, also 19. He was a customer in the old shop back home in Söderköping and was simply looking for a job anywhere. To cut a long story short, he ended up moving to Stockholm. But they don't really describe their relationship as friends, they mostly keep to themselves at home. "It feels reasonable when you're otherwise in the same place around the clock," says Liam. Besides, he is Linus' boss.
What free time they have, Liam spends exercising and Linus spends playing computer games, at least according to Liam.
You're two nineteen-year-olds in the big city. You never go for a beer or anything?
- No, I don't. I don't drink, I stay away from that. I've said I'll make 100 million first, then I'll celebrate with a beer. I don't snuff or vejpar either.
Your products, then. Never even tested them?
- No, and it's the same with my brother - he runs the shop in Söderköping now. But that's when the real interest comes out, I think. Because if you're working with and selling a product that you're not involved with yourself, then you have to go deeper. You have to find out all the facts. How the prill is made, the production stuff. You need to know everything that has to do with snus. And then you become a nerd on those parts instead. My colleagues here never read up on history and when snus came or anything like that, but instead they know how a quality prill feels in the mouth. But I, who never use snus, know what the customer wants. I know how the bag is made, I know what quality different brands have, which machines are the best and so on. I have sat for hours reading different lists of contents.
So your older brother runs the other shop. Will there be competition then, who sells the most?
- Yes, but guess what! Liam laughs.
- No, but in the end it's the same company. But both my brother and I are very competitive, so of course we compare ourselves.
No ordinary family snack at home
When the Zielkowski family meets, the Nikoteken and sales are pretty much the only items on the agenda.
- I have two bosses, even though they happen to be my pears. When you get home, there's talk of work. It's not like ... shall we go to the cinema? Dad and song stuff for me is dad's talk about the shop, which I think is super fun. We have a great relationship in the family but it's, I won't say otherwise, but no such talk about private life or how other things are going. We've never had that time. But I know that they trust me and my brother completely, that we wouldn't do anything stupid.
His father's success with the shop is Liam's yardstick and also the path to follow.
- My father is 47 years old today and now he can relax, after 30 years of constant labour. He was able to open his second shop after 15 years. So - it's always harder to make your first million, and the second one easier. In the same way, I can open 15 shops more easily than he could open two. Because it's just doing the same thing again, and on a name that's already established.
Thinking ahead, now I'm just driving?
- Yes, one hundred per cent! I'm Polish, we're going to crash into the wall, haha. I never want to be worse than my parents. It sounds crazy to say that, but they've worked hard for fifteen years. Should I then work for two years and take three weeks' holiday when they have taken three weeks in maybe five years?
Consumer goods as a pure product
Nikoteket has around 900 varieties of snus, around 300 - 400 varieties of vejp and 350 varieties of cigars. Liam is constantly analysing what sells, when it sells and why. There's no doubt that most customers come for the snus.
- 100 per cent. Vejp is much more of a seasonal thing in the summer. Then it becomes an overhype I could almost say and we sell vejps so they just run out the window. It's the same with cigars. You don't smoke a cigar in winter, it ruins the whole thing. For me, both vejp and cigar feel more like a pleasure thing.
Pleasure doesn't seem to be Liam's cup of tea in his private life. But if he keeps up his drive and follows the highway that his family has put him on, it wouldn't be the least bit surprising if he earned at least some of that 100 million he's talking about before his peers even started working at all.
