Scandinavian Tobacco Group Agrees To Acquire Alec Bradley Cigars For $72.5 Million
Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S (STG), the European concern that’s one of the world’s largest cigar companies, has agreed to acquire Alec Bradley Cigar Distributors for $72.5 million. The deal includes “substantially all assets” of Alec Bradley, the brand that was named Cigar Aficionado’s Cigar of the Year for 2011.
The deal, which was announced this morning, is expected to close shortly.
“The acquisition of the Alec Bradley cigar business is another important step toward our ambition of becoming the undisputed and sustainable global leader in cigars,” said Niels Frederiksen, CEO of STG. “Through this bolt-on acquisition, we will expand our portfolio of highly regarded cigars in the U.S. and international markets, delivering material value to our shareholders.”
STG is a company with more than $1 billion in annual sales and some 10,000 employees worldwide, and it’s headquartered in Denmark. It’s the 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, based in Fort Lauderdale, had sales of $25 million in 2021, according to STG, and it has around 30 full-time employees. In 2022, Alec Bradley sold almost 10 million cigars—up five percent over 2021 numbers, said STG. Alec Bradley owns several cigar brands—most of them bearing the Alec Bradley name—but it does not make its own cigars. Alan Rubin founded Alec Bradley in 1996, naming it after his two sons. The company survived the rough market of the late 1990s, in the days that followed the 1990s cigar boom, and later thrived when it began scoring well in the pages of Cigar Aficionado. It reached its critical zenith when the company’s Alec Bradley Prensado Churchill was named Cigar of the Year for 2011, with a rating of 96 points.
Recently, Alan and Bradley Rubin—Alan’s sons—ed the company and began making their own blends, including Gatekeeper.
“When you have an hour to smoke a cigar, that should be the best hour of your day. We want to be part of your best hour of the day,” Rubin told Cigar Aficionado in 2011. “And there's a big responsibility there.”
STG has been quite active in its acquisitions of other companies. Last summer, it bought retailer Thompson and Co., and earlier deals include such brands as Toraño and those of Leccia Tobacco Co.
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