Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG)—parent of General Cigar Co., Cigars International, Thompson Cigar and others—has reported its results for the third quarter of 2018: sales are slightly up, profit is slightly down.

The company says that it generated DKK 1.887 billion ($286.3 million) in revenue while EBITDA, a form of profit, was DKK 374 million ($57 million). Those numbers correspond to a 1.7 growth in revenue, while profit is .3 percent less than the third quarter of last year.

In Q3 2017, the trends were similar: revenue was up 1.9 percent while EBITDA was down .8 percent.

STG has already announced how it will address the declining profits, last month the company said it was beginning a new efficiency initiative that would include over 100 white collar layoffs.

“We are delivering a result in line with our expectations,” said Niels Frederiksen, ceo of STG, in a statement.

“Our handmade category continues to deliver strong growth and I am obviously particular pleased that Thompson Cigars ahead of time delivers a positive contribution to the category. In Accessories and Contract Manufacturing, we are for the seventh straight quarter able to deliver growth and the category is now our third largest. During the quarter we launched Fuelling the Growth, a Group wide transformational program that will make us a stronger and more competitive company better equipped to become the best integrator in the industry.”

STG stock closed at DKK 96.35 ($14.76), down 1.63 percent.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.