27 February 2023
Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S (STG), the European concern that is one of the world’s largest cigar companies, has agreed to acquire Alec Bradley Cigar Distributors for $72.5 million.
STG is a company with more than $1 billion in annual sales and some 10,000 employees worldwide, and it is headquartered in Denmark. It is also a parent company of General Cigar Co., which makes a vast array of handmade cigars including Macanudo, CAO, La Gloria Cubana and the non-Cuban Cohiba, Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey brands, among many others. It also owns Cigars International, the largest Internet retailer of cigars in the world. STG makes cigars in three of the largest cigar-producing countries, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras.
Alec Bradley was founded by Alan Rubin in 1996, naming it after his two sons. Alan and Bradley Rubin—Alan’s sons—joined the company and began making their own blends, including Gatekeeper. News of the deal was announced just days after Alec Bradley announced a new Gatekeeper edition in diamond shape.
STG has made more acquisitions than any other cigar company in the last 10 years and I imagine it will continue to do them. This is the sixth acquisition in little more than five years:
- January 2018 — Thompson Cigar
- July 2018 — Peterson Pipe Group
- January 2020 — Agio
- November 2021 — Moderno Opificio del Sigaro Italiano
- June 2022 — Room101
- February 2023 — Alec Bradley
The purchase of the brand was one of the most discussed topics during the Total Product Expo (one of the largest exhibitions in the cigar industry), which took place in Las Vegas, 20th to 22nd of FEB, 2023.
