Altadis
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Tobacco, logistics |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
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Key people
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Jean-Dominique Comolli (Chairman) Robert Dyrbus (CEO) |
| Revenue | € 4.112 billion (2005) |
| Parent | Imperial Brands |
| Website | www |
Altadis was a multinational purveyor and manufacturer of cigarettes, tobacco and cigars. Altadis was formed via a 1999 merger between Tabacalera, the former Spanish tobacco monopoly and SEITA, the former French tobacco monopoly. Through its international holdings, including ownership of the former Consolidated Cigar Holdings Inc. and half ownership of the Cuban state tobacco monopoly, Habanos S.A., Altadis was the largest producer of mass market and premium cigars in the world, as well as the fourth largest producer of tobacco products. The company was acquired by the British tobacco giant Imperial Tobacco (now Imperial Brands) in 2008.
In 1926, France concentrated its tobacco industry into a single state-run monopoly called Service d'Exploitation industrielle des tabacs (SEIT). The production of matches (alumettes) was added to the state monopoly's purview in 1935 and the company was renamed SEITA.
Following the end of World War II, Spain similarly established a state-owned tobacco monopoly called Tabacalera, Sociedad Anonima, Compañia Gestora del Monopolio de Tabacos y Servicios Anejos, commonly known as Tabacalera.
Throughout the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, national markets were gradually opened up to the importation of foreign tobacco brands and the national tobacco monopolies of both France and Spain were weakened and gradually privatized, with SEITA employees losing status as civil servants in 1962 and the company losing both its monopoly of tobacco cultivation and tobacco sales by 1971.
SEITA purchased Consolidated Cigar Holdings Inc. of Fort Lauderdale in the United States. Consolidated Cigar was a large purveyor of cigars such as the Dominican made editions of Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo.
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Wikipedia