Effective February 2, Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) will reshuffle its U.S. cigar sales structure, transferring five brands between its two internal sales divisions, General Cigar Co. and Forged Cigar Co., according to Halfwheel. Most notably, the non-Cuban Cohiba brand will move from General to Forged, along with Punch and Havana Honeys, as STG seeks to better balance the two divisions. Partagas and Room101 will switch to General.
The restructuring is part of STG’s Focus2030 strategy and is designed to make General and Forged more equal in scale, despite their unusual internal competition model in which sales teams owned by the same company compete directly for the same retail accounts. STG also plans to expand the Forged sales force and has shifted several lower-volume brands—Brioso, Honduran Bundles, and La Estrella Cubana—to its Meier & Dutch wholesale division, with Los Statos Deluxe, Room101 Farce, and Sancho Panza removed from active price lists, but with no other updates given.