STG Slightly Down in Q2 2026

Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG)—the publicly-traded giant that owns Cigars International, General Cigar Co. and more—has announced its results for the second quarter of 2026. While STG was slightly down, it’s not due to cigar sales.

The company reported DKK 2.334 billion in sales, which it says is down 1 percent from last year. STG has characterized the performance of a drop of just .1 percent at constant currencies, a reflection of exchange rate variability.

Key metrics include:

• Revenue was DKK 2.334 billion ($363.83 million), down 1 percent
• Net Profit was DKK 217 million ($33.83 million), up 4.6 percent
• EBITDA before special items was DKK 515 million ($80.28 million), up 3 percent
• The EBITDA margin before special items was 16.6 percent, up from 16.5 percent
• Free cash flow before acquisitions was DKK 264 million ($41.15 million), up 122 percent
• Adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) were DKK 3.3 ($.51), flat

The company acknowledged that some of its Q2 financial performance was boosted by a refund of tariffs paid last year, most notably the 122 percent increase in free cash flow, though it’s unclear what the dollar amount was.

STG, which is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Copenhagen, has a large handmade cigar portfolio that includes retailers such as Cigars International, Cigar.com, Cigarbid.com, Thompson Cigar, PipesandCigars.com and Cigora. It also owns General Cigar Co. and Forged Cigar Co., which sell Cohiba, La Gloria Cubana, Partagas and other brands in the U.S. In both the U.S. and international markets, it sells Agio, Alec Bradley, CAO, Macanudo, Room101 and others.

The company says that through the first six months of the year, its handmade cigar business has exceeded its own internal projections. Its wholesale divisions had a “high single-digit growth” for handmade cigars, while the retail business had “mid-single-digit growth” of handmade cigars. STG had predicted that the business would be down 4 percent for 2026. Overall, STG says its branded business, i.e. General and Forged, has “gained market share” while its retail business is flat.

For the first six months of the year, STG has reported the following handmade cigar performance:

• North American Online & Retail: DKK 1.005 billion ($156.72 million)
• North America Branded & Rest of World: DKK 484.3 million ($75.49 million)
• Europe Branded: DKK 46.5 million ($7.25 million)
• Total: DKK 1.536 billion ($239.44 million)

For context, STG reported total machine-made cigar and smoking tobacco sales at DKK 2.094 billion. Sales of handmade cigar sales accounted for about 37 percent of STG’s total sales.

“The markets remain highly competitive but the commercial execution, with even more focus on our
power brands and tactical pricing, delivered encouraging results ahead of the second half of the year,” said the company in its earnings report. “The share of our own brands sold through our consumer distribution channels increased slightly, driven by our power brands, Macanudo, CAO, Cohiba and Alec Bradley.”

STG also has a strong machine-made cigar business, especially in Europe, as well as units that include pipe tobacco, roll-your-own and tobacco-free nicotine products. Interestingly, the company noted that Signature, a line of cigarillos previously known as Café Crème, had a major issue with tobacco quality, resulting in a write-down of DKK 35 million ($5.46 million) and a loss of market share in France, a key market for the line.

Signature is one of the most popular cigarillos and a major brand for STG overall. The company says it has secured tobacco and expects product availability to normalize in Q3.

“We are making solid progress with Focus2030, although we are still in the early phase of the five-year strategy period,” said Niels Frederiksen, ceo of STG, in a statement. “Our core tobacco categories are stabilising with handmade cigars delivering good growth, we are expanding our nicotine pouch business and following the recently announced agreement to divest two fine-cut tobacco brands we expect to have restored our strategic and financial flexibility by the end of the year. These are important achievements in our ambition to build a stronger Scandinavian Tobacco Group and deliver tangible value for our shareholders.”

The company says its 2026 guidance remains unchanged:

• Net Sales Growth at Constant Currencies +/- 2 percent
• EBITDA margin before special items in the range of 13-14.5 percent
• Free cash flow before acquisitions in the range DKK 950 million-1.2 billion
• Earnings per share DKK 9-11

Scandinavian Tobacco Group