Forums
Big news today. Not sure what to think about it. I hope the quality doesn't drop. There's a bunch of Mac Baren blends I really like the way they are.
Here's the link to the news article:
Wow! This makes me sad 😢. I would suggest stocking up on all of your favorite Mac Baren tobacco. STG has a way of ruining a lot of things.
Didn't see that one coming! Luckily I already have a large supply of my favourite Mac Barens.
In 10 years they'll be selling tins of "pre acquisition" Plum Cake on Tin Bids for $500.
That wouldn’t be all bad for me at least. I have quite a stock of Mac Baren tins, going all the way back to 2009 😃😂.
😱🙀🤯
Of course, Mac Baren also owns Sutliff, (and all subsidiaries of parent STC Holdings, LLC), including this site - and cupojoes.com and tobaccopipes.com. So, once the sale goes through, STG will be the custodian of this review library and sponsor of this forum. The pipe tobacco world is getting smaller.
Capstan
Wow. As Joseph said, the pipe tobacco world has shrunk big time.
I buy a lot of Sutliff tobacco. Hope this acquisition doesn't screw up Sutliff. Which makes a lot of blends for other companies.
This is huge. A rather sad day, methinks. And very possibly the result of the massive anti-tobacco restrictions coming from governments.
I thought it would be worthwhile to list (and I’m sure I’ve missed many, please point any out) Mac Baren made tobaccos and some companies and things owned by them that it appears STG will now own.
All Mac Baren branded tobaccos, an extensive list I won’t repeat here.
Numerous Savinelli tobaccos
Amphora
St. Bruno
As @Relight mentioned:
Capstan
Backwoods
Three Nuns
Amsterdamer
Scaferlati
Presbyterian, I believe, correct me if I’m mistaken.
SUTLIFF along with their extensive selection.
As @Joseph mentioned:
Tobacco Reviews website
Cupojoes and Tobaccopipes
OMFG .... It seems to me that the biggest tobacco monopoly of the history is emerging, to say the least....
So they'll probably use their strength position to do anything they want. Take it or leave it.
I´m going to stock all I can, but time will tell us...
Or maybe Great Wall Oriental, Tiananmen Bloody delight, Collective People´s weed....
I'll be honest, I'd give Kung Po Burley a try.
It is interesting though. It's like Laudisi vs the world now.
I was in a frenzy when I saw Samuel Gawith stopped importation to Switzerland and bought all I can. Now I refuse to spend again a lot of money for fear of losing one of my favorite tobacco: Capstan.
Frankly I'm a bit tired, I think from now on I'll open a tin of G.L.Pease and C&D once in a while, like a good wine, and smoke more local tobaccos from where I live, like Schürch. I'll try to support more local production and spend less money, maybe I'll try creating my own blends, plugs and flakes, it will be probably disgusting at the beginning, but maybe it'll be even funnier.
I can't stand to see my pleasure, my hobby being profoubdly influenced by people in suits and corporates...
I believe we should all be prepared for the forum to be shut down or left to die
Scandinavian groups website is pretty clear that the company is run by a bunch of KPI worshipping, cost cutting MBAs. They'll likely see that tobaccoreviews.com and this forum get very low traffic, generate no revenue and ax it. It will take them awhile to get to it. But I wouldn't bet on this place in the longterm.
They are so cost cutting that:
I smoked Clan when It was made by Theodorus Niemeyer in Holland, quite nice. Not long ago I tried a bowl of their version. Better no comment.
It´s said that Rattray´s mixtures made by them were terrible, and they recover their spirit when K&K took the production. Fortunately I only have smoked the K&K ones.
My tobacconist told me Mac Baren stocks in Spain are huge, in fact during the last months shortage, the only two brands available with no restrictions were Samuel Gawith and Mac Baren. Anyway I purchased some Capstan, HH Vintage Latakia (HH Vintage Balcan in the US) and some Best Brown Flake. I´m sure the new Mac Baren blends will change for sure, and Pre-Acquisition tins will increase price.
Time to start growing tobacco!!! Maybe K&K knew. They had changes during the last like 2 yrs.
is Laudisi from STG? I thought they were their own with C&D and… what else actually? The website smokingpipes.com?
Laudisi was a distributor that purchased C&D around 2014 if I remember correctly. They have also bought Peterson Pipes and seem that they have some interest in what used to be Kohlhase und Kopp, now Kopp but that’s not clear. That also appears to include HU in some form or fashion. They also own Smokingpipes. Being a privately held company, no one who’s talking seems to know who actually owns Laudisi. I’d be curious if anyone has more info.
I think they also have Savinelli, or am I making that up?
C&D, Pete, Sav and the biggest online pipe dealer is a pretty good stable. Smokingpipes.com has become a behemoth. Their stock, range and service is world class, imo. I assume Sykes pretty much still runs things. Not bad for a business started in a dorm room. Maybe he and some partners are Laudisi?
Yeah, I mean it will make sense to compartmentalize into different structures for legal and taxation reasons I guess.
so when they take over Kopp, that would blow my mind dude…
Sykes Wilford is president of Laudisi Enterprises. As I recall, he was friends with Craig Tarlar who started C&D. And when Craig passed, his wife sold the company to Wilford. At least that is how I'm remembering the connection. Wilford seems to be the Bezos of tobacco. He started with virtually nothing and now is a giant.
I also recalled a connection with Savinelli. After a bit of research, it appears that Laudisi is the sole distributor for Savinelli going back to a deal struck in 2012.
Ah ok, for Switzerland (I don't know if also for the EU) the distributor is Oettinger of the Davidoff group.
I think Laudisi has made some deals with italian pipemakers, for example Foundation by Musicò has closed his marvellous shop in Rome and now I can only see their pipes on Smokingpipes...
It's the same artisans who blended some HU mixtures, like Asmara etc, the HU Foundation Line known today as HU African Line.
They make magnificent pipes...
Dude, this is seriously interesting!!!
I mean everything is in constant change. But right now a lot is going on. The classic tobacco market is und a certain pressure from emerging nicotine delivery systems of new like Vaping and so on. I seriously hope they wont touch the good old combustion of classic leaf anytime in the near future.
As far as I understood, Hans Wiedemann, the man behind HU went under the roof of Kopp Tobacco.
Yes, and it appears that Laudisi acquired the Kopp brothers interest in K&K and rebranded the company as Kopp.
Oh wow! I thought the Kopps bought out the Kohlhases who didnt want to venture out into pipe business too much and follow the cigar business.
where does Laudisi fit in there financially?
Laudisi’s primary business is cigars, pipes and pipe tobacco are a secondary business for them. They are the ones acquiring businesses in different markets to expand their cigar sales. Like I said, private companies so the exact details aren’t known, but they definitely aren’t try to hide what they are doing. Representatives from Laudisi have been talking about this extensively in the trade publications for years with their involvement in Kopp being highly promoted by them since it expanded the markets they can sell in.
It looks to me like everyone's chips are on cigars. Pipe acquisitions just provide distribution breadth, new markets, and maybe some manufacturing synergies.
I read an article in a tobacco trade magazine about a year ago where someone from Laudisi was giving retailers tips on getting their customers to switch from pipes to cigars because of the substantially higher profits in cigars.
I smoke two pipes a day, that means 150 grams a month and about an estimate cost of 40€ to 50€ a month. Two good quality cigars that last 45 minutes are 25€ to 35€ a day!, 900€ a month! and cigars does not provide a better experience than a good pipe, as much, just different.
Pipe smoking is an affordable pleasure!
😂😂😂😂
rumours at an all time high! All seems hear-say
😂😂😂
at least on my part there sure is no substantial knowledge what so ever
I’m not sure what you mean exactly, most of this is public knowledge, if you go to the Kopp website, you find Laudisi mentioned all over it and it’s described as a “new partnership” so sure the details of a private company are hidden, but the involvement isn’t a rumor when the parties are the ones saying it happened. Everything else listed here that I’ve read comes from public releases and industry news articles, Laudisi is quite proud of their acquisitions and promote them. Not knowing the details of something doesn’t mean what the companies are telling you themselves happened are rumors.
True that. I’m not a rocket scientist.
Things happening at the rim of everyday focus obv bewilder me 😂
I’m sorry if I came off as questioning your intelligence, I wasn’t trying to do that. I do read some of the trade publications and follow various businesses just because I find business interesting in general and because I like to know what’s coming up. I feel like I’ve had the rug pulled from underneath me on many products I like in the past because of businesses making changes and I like to head that off if I can. So I probably do read and see more around the business side of the tobacco industry than many. Also there is no doubt that there’s plenty of rumors around the tobacco industry. Heck, there’s far more rumor than factual knowledge about what’s in many of the tobaccos we like 😃.
No worries, you didn’t question me, I did 😉.
I just realize how not easy I find it to come up with the information readily available for everybody on the internet. That in our time and age is a bit sad tbh 😂😂😂
I cannot imagine how many times the market got upside down again and again and it still alive. I´m not that scared. Maybe i would be if i was an old pipe smoker full of examples on how bad was when it happened in the past. Let see what the future holds for us.
When I look back to when I started smoking a pipe forty years ago vs how things are now, of course most things have changed. Some are minor changes, some major. Although I can be rather jaded and crotchety about the changes, in reality it’s not all bad and there have been many new things, especially in the last five years that have been extremely good that I’m really happy about. Pipe Force, Birds of a Feather and many of the C&D limited releases are excellent examples, there was nothing like that forty years ago. Obviously to people who haven’t experienced the changes, it’s rather meaningless.
My only real concern with everything that’s happening on the business side of pipes and pipe tobacco is that things are reaching the level of a true monopoly which is rarely a good thing in my experience. Unlike many monopolies though, there is an opportunity for independent small businesses to be created by people who are passionate pipe tobacco and really great things to show up as a result, there are already a number of those now.
If I attempt to balance my nostalgia with a fresh look at things, they aren’t bad. I do expect with what is going on though, some good things will pass into history which is inevitable I suppose.
Luckily you can put good things in your cellar and decide for yourself when they pass into history 😀
Wow! This is really surprising. I watched an STG annual financial report presentation on Youtube a few years ago and I was surprised to realize their pipe tobacco business only accounted for something like 6% of annual revenue; Most of the money is in cigars. I was expecting the opposite of this outcome. I wouldn't have been surprised if STG had decided to sell off their pipe tobacco business with the likelihood Mac Baren picking it up.
Any insight as to why the owners of Mac Baren are selling off? Has inflationary cost made the writing on the wall rather apparent for a premium brand? Mac Baren twists on the cheaper side online are over $25 per 3.5 oz tin, over $50 to over $80 for a 1 lb. bag...Ouch! And in tobacconist shops they are probably double that. I've seriously considered making my own blends from whole leaf. $80 a lb. is just too much no matter how much I may like the tobacco unless it's early 1990's Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture then I would mortgage the house.
Henrik Halberg, who passed away in January 2021, was the fourth generation Founding Family owner, after whom the HH Line of blends was named. Long may his memory continue to be a blessing, and long may his legacy of fine pipe tobacco last. Time will tell.
target="_blank"
