BackST CIGAR GROUP ACQUIRES BELGIAN CIGAR ACTIVITIES FROM BAT
Scandinavian Tobacco (ST) is pleased to announce that the Group’s cigar division, ST Cigar Group Holding B.V.(STCG) will acquire from British American Tobacco its Belgian cigar company (Tabacofina-VanderElst) and associated brands. The actual acquisition is expected to take effect within a few months.
ST‘s CEO Anders Colding Friis is delighted with the acquisition of the cigar activities from BAT.
"This move is a further step in realizing our objective to reinforce our position in the cigar market, both through acquisitions and organic growth”.
BAT’s cigar company, Tabacofina-VanderElst, manufactured 420 million cigars in 2006, and is market leader in Belgium with a market share of more than 40% with brands like Mercator, Corps Diplomatique, Schimmelpenninck and Don Pablo.The main export markets are France, the Netherlands, and Italy.
STCG is one of the largest cigar companies in the world. With its headquarters in The Netherlands STCG consists of a number of subsidiary companies of which Henri Wintermans is the most well known. In Denmark the Group owns the cigar company Nobel Cigars.
In total more than 1.3 billion cigars are being sold by STCG and its main markets are the U.K., France, Canada and Denmark.
With the brand “Café Crème” the group holds one of the best sold small cigar in the world. Other important brand names are Henri Wintermans, Reas, Colts, Nobel Petit, Che and Blues.
Just a few months ago ST Cigar Group acquired CAO International Inc. in Nashville, a major player in the premium handmade cigar market, a growing segment in the USA.
STCG ’s CEO, Rob Zwarts also welcomes the acquisition and says the competition between the players on the international cigar market is ex-pected to intensify.
“Growing economies of scale is one of the key elements in defending and improving our current position. We have now strengthened our position as the leading cigar company in Europe and have clearly become one of the top three players worldwide.”
For further enquiries please contact:
Anders Colding Friis, CEO, Scandinavian Tobacco, tel. +45 39 55 62 00
Rob Zwarts, CEO or Frans van Rijsingen, Corporate Affairs Manager, ST Cigar Group Holding B.V. tel + 31 497 581911.
ABOUT SCANDINAVIAN TOBACCO GROUP
- a world leading manufacturer of cigars and traditional pipe tobacco
- approx. 8,200 employees in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the US
The Group’s brand portfolio contains more than 200 international, regional and local tobacco brands, including the cigar brands Café Crème, La Paz, Henri Wintermans, Macanudo, CAO, Partagas (US) and Cohiba (US). Pipe tobacco brands include Captain Black, Erinmore, Borkum Riff and W.Ø. Larsen, while leading fine-cut tobacco brands include Bugler, Break, Escort, Bali Shag and Tiedemanns.
The Group is ultimately owned by two Danish foundations (51%) – the Augustinus Foundation and Det Obelske Familiefond – and by Swedish Match (49%). Both Danish foundations have been active in the tobacco industry for more than 250 years. Swedish Match is a publicly owned company listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
Read more: www.st-group.com.
Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S
Sydmarken 42
DK-2860 Søborg
Denmark
CVR 31 08 01 85
