Oliva’s Owner Invests in Cigarpage.com

The Vandermarliere family, the owner of J. Cortès and Oliva, has made an investment in Brandshopper, the Pennsylvania-based company that owns cigarpage.com.

Brandshopper was founded by Keith Meier, one of the founders of Cigars International, and includes cigarpage.com, an online cigar storefront; wingsupply.com, an online hunting storefront; and fieldsupply.com, an online outdoors storefront.

Meier co-founded Cigars International in 1996. It was sold to Swedish Match in 2007 and is now owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group.

“The new investment will help accelerate growth and provide the extra push to acquire greater market share in this environment,” said Meier in a press release. “It was important to work with the right partner – and Fred was the one. It was clear early in our discussions that we had a shared vision.”

The Vandermarliere family purchased Oliva in 2016. It now means that Oliva joins a list of cigar companies like General Cigar Co., Altadis U.S.A., Ashton and others that have ownership stakes in online cigar retailers.

“Becoming a partner in an e-tailing business is something which we have been looking into for several years,” said Fred Vandermarliere. “I strongly believe offline and online sales have a future alongside each other. Keith as our CEO will continue to do what he has been doing so well with Brandshopper.”

In addition to J. Cortès—a machine-made cigar company—the family also owns Jules Destrooper, a Belgian cookie company.