Home » Merger Modifies?KY Tobacco Maker’s Relocation Plans

Merger Modifies?KY Tobacco Maker’s Relocation Plans

By wmadministrator

Bowling Green tobacco manufacturer Commonwealth Brands Inc. has canceled plans to relocate its headquarters to the Nashville area and will instead integrate operations with Florida-based sister company Altadis USA and move to Fort Lauderdale.

In announcing the merged operations, the companies – which are owned by London-based Imperial Tobacco Group – said the integration would provide greater sales coverage and more comprehensive services. The combined portfolio will incorporate cigarettes, fine-cut tobacco, mass-market cigars, pipe, papers and tubes. The premium cigar division of Altadis USA will remain as a separate entity.
Commonwealth officials said the integration of the two companies’ sales and marketing functions is expected to be complete by the end of the year; the transition of all other departments to Fort Lauderdale will take approximately a year.

Commonwealth Brands announced late last year that it had outgrown its Bowling Green facility and would be moving the company’s headquarters and some 100 jobs to Goodlettsville, Tenn., by mid-2011. The decision to cancel the move caught Goodlettsville officials by surprise.

“It’s a blow when we lose several dozens of high-paying jobs in a community that everyone was looking forward to getting going,” Goodlettsville Economic and Community Development Director Tom Tucker told The Nashville Business Journal. “Corporate offices feed the retail machine.”