Comments on: Stogie News: Deal Unites CAO, Toraño, and General Cigar

By: Cigar Insider: Ed McKenna of CAO Cigars | The Stogie Guys

Cigar Insider: Ed McKenna of CAO Cigars | The Stogie Guys — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:02:17 +0000

[...] owned company was purchased by the Scandanavian Tobacco Group (STG). Later, in early 2010, STG merged its premium tobacco division with General Cigar (makers of Macanudo, La Gloria Cubana, Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey and many more [...]

By: Stogie News: The Cigar Year in Review

Stogie News: The Cigar Year in Review — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:01:41 +0000

[...] biggest news of January was when Swedish Match and the Scandinavian Tobacco Group merged to bring their many brands under one roof. The deal united General Cigar, CAO, and [...]

By: dmjones

dmjones — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:02:01 +0000

I would add that for every monolithic General or Altadis, there are dozens of smaller boutique and/or specialized brands like Tatuaje, Illusione, La Flor Dominicana, and Drew Estate. And there are even the larger independent brands like Rocky Patel. At this point I don't think the industry will suffer from lack of competition. On the other hand, if some of those companies (or others like them) start getting absorbed into the big boys, all bets are off.

By: Patrick S

Patrick S — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:55:59 +0000

Rotunda-

The issue of consolidation is an interesting one. I certainly think there would be a point where too much consolidation would stifle competition, but I don't think we're there yet. STG and Swedish Match have merged but they are still well less than 50 percent of the industry (probably 30-35 percent market share, and that's just manufacturing not retail) so I think consumers will benefit from economies of scale, but not lose much, because they are in no where near a dominant/monopoly position.

By: Rotunda

Rotunda — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:47:49 +0000

Thanks for keeping us updated with this important news. StogieGuys.com always does a great job of staying on top of the industry.

In your analysis, though, you only seem to list the positive impacts of industry consolidation. While I don't disagree with your assessment, I was wondering if you could also discuss some of the potentially negative impacts? Perhaps how fewer and fewer entities are producing a greater percentage of cigars and what that means for competition and quality?