STG Announces Price Increases

As part of a midyear adjustment to its portfolio, Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) informed retailers today that its portfolio will be undergoing price changes that will go into effect tomorrow, Aug. 1.

The company, which includes two different U.S. salesforces—General Cigar Co. and Forged Cigar Co.—did not provide a summary of the changes, leaving it to retailers to figure out which lines are increasing by which amounts. It also did not provide a reason for the increases.

Combined, General and Forged sell Alec Bradley, CAO, Cohiba, La Gloria Cubana, Macanudo, Partagas, Room101 and others in the U.S. Given the size of STG’s portfolio, the increases are varied, but a sampling of several lines saw a number of increases between 60 cents and $1.40 to the retail price of the cigars, with the higher-priced lines seeing the larger increases. For instance, in Macanudo’s core line, the 6 x 52 Tudor size is increasing by $1.10 from $10.69 to $11.79, while the 4 x 36 Caviar size is increasing from $4.29 to $4.69. Similar increases are seen elsewhere, such as La Gloria Cubana’s core line and several Alec Bradley lines.

Like its Cuban counterpart, General Cigar Co.’s Cohiba line is seeing some notable increases. The Cohiba Churchill is increasing from $27.29 to $29.49, while the Cohiba Robusto goes from $24.79 to $26.79.

Few cigars are not seeing some sort of increase, though those that tend to be the newest releases, such as the Hoyo Rojo and Hoyo Oscuro, which came out in early June, or the CAO FASA Sol and FASA Noche, which came out this past spring.

STG also announced the discontinuation of four cigar lines: the CAO Nicaragua, CAO Maduro, Macanudo Vintage 2006, and Diesel Disciple.