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General Cigar Company is the largest manufacturer of premium cigars in the world. It is a subsidiary of Scandinavian Tobacco Group with North American headquarters located in Richmond, Virginia.
General Cigar Company
Company history
In 1961 General Cigar, which was profitably selling about $30 million worth of cigars annually, was purchased for approximately $25 million by a group of investors headed by Edgar M. Cullman (brother of then Philip Morris Company CEO Joseph Cullman), a fourth generation American in the tobacco industry.
Later in the 1960s, Culbro and General Cigar acquired Gradiaz Annis, maker of Gold Label cigars and the Temple Hall factory that owned the Macanudo brand name, ushering in a turn towards hand-rolled premium cigars. Macanudo, a small label made in limited quantities for the market in the United Kingdom, was seen as the principal vehicle for growth in the premium cigar category. A careful effort was made to reblend the product for the large American marketplace (then and now subject to a ban on Cuban tobacco, the industry's gold standard) using select binder and filler from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Mexico and Connecticut shade-grown wrapper. Mass advertising was conducted in support of the brand, which by the early 1990s had grown into the best selling premium cigar label in the United States.
In 1978 General registered a U.S. trademark on the brand name "Cohiba", thereby obtaining the right to use the name of that premium Cuban cigar in the American market without any connection to or content provided by its Cuban maker. Protracted legal wrangling followed, resolved when the U. S. Supreme Courtdenied the petition of the Cuban tobacco marketing agency, Cubatabaco, in 2006. General Cigar's Cohiba cigars bear a disclaimer stating that they are not affiliated in any way with the Cuban Cohiba brand.
From 1978 General Cigar has also produced the Cuban tobacco free Partagas and Bolivar cigar brands for the American market in competition with Cuban brands of the same name. Initial production of Partagas was conducted in Jamaica, but the following year production moved to a modern 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m) factory in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
A similar trade dress to the Cuban product has been used by General Cigar for its competing version of the Partagás brand, employing a red-and-gold band scheme, save with the word "Habana" replaced by the date "1845" on the packaging.
In 1997, General Cigar acquired Villazon, a company marketing non-Cuban versions of the leading Cuban cigar brands Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey.
In 2016, Swedish Match sold its shares of General Cigar back to STG.
In January 2021, Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S (STG), the company behind General Cigar and Cigars International, announced the formation of a new company, The Forged Cigar Company, an independent national cigar distribution network. The cigar brands under General Cigar were split up between General and Forged with the latter focusing more on Brick and Mortar business.
The first brands that were moved to The Forged Cigar Company were Partagas, La Gloria Cubana, Bolivar Cofradia, Diesel and Chillin’ Moose. Brands that remained with General included CAO, Cohiba, Hoyo de Monterrey, Macanudo, and Punch. Later the El Rey Del Mundo brand was added to Forged's portfolio.
General Cigar's brands
Ramone Allones (non-Cuban production in competition with the Cuban brand)
Bolivar (non-Cuban production in competition with the Cuban brand)
CAO
Cohiba (non-Cuban production in competition with the Cuban brand)
Don Tomás
Excalibur
Foundry
Diesel
Helix
La Gloria Cubana (non-Cuban production in competition with the Cuban brand)
Hoyo de Monterrey (non-Cuban production in competition with the Cuban brand)
^ Marvin R. Shanken, "Interview: Edgar Cullman, Sr.," Cigar Aficionado, vol. 3, no. 1 (Autumn 1994), pp. 55–71.
Empresa Cubana del Tabaco v. Culbro Corp., 399 F.3d 462 (2d Cir. 2005).
^ James Suckling, "The Partagas Family: Cigar Smokers from Around the World Gathered in Havana and Orlando This Summer to Celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Partagas Cigars," Cigar Aficionado, vol. 4, no. 2 (Winter 1995/96), pp. 134–143.
"General Cigar Co.," Neptune Cigars, neptunecigar.com/ Retrieved October 24, 2010.
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