understanding the tobacco industry

C&D, while one of the absolute best tobaccos, is not a big company at all with limited US distribution. Lane Ltd is just one of many owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group, which is relatively large. Then Mac Barens/Sutliff comes to mind, as they have several smaller labels as well. These are international and way larger. Stokkebye is probably rather large, comparatively. But, keep in mind that large for pipe tobacco is not exactly what we might be thinking. We are still a niche industry. So, there probably is never enough Escudo rolling out of the factory to fill an 18 wheeler. More like boxes at a time.

Cosmic has it right. There are a few huge corporations that own an array of name companies. Several of the most-admired blenders on Forums are pretty small but known to us because we pay close attention to new and specialized blends.

Lane and Sutliff are two of the biggest in the US. They produce a lot of blends for other labels as well as their own. In Europe I would guess Mac Baren, Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Kolhase and Kopp, and Planta. There are a number of other, smaller blenders.

To put it into perspective, it appears that STG does about $285 M in sales per year versus Philip Morris at $78 B. So STG is about 1/2 % the size of PM. I think that puts things into perspective. And pipe tobacco is only a small portion of their sales.

@hoosierpipeguy makes an excellent point. Unfortunately, it’s a big reason that we pipe guys get hammered by taxes and recently by new bureaucrat generated regulations. We’re the small dog in the kennel. - - Even pot smokers have more political pull in some states.

I really do not believe smokers, particularly pipe smokers are "hammered" any more than any other

American, Brit, or ... pick your nationality, with taxes. Gasoline, income, sales, luxury, inventory, school, and the list goes on, pick dollars, euros, etc. out of every ones wallets. And, out of most of those, tobacco is a tax we pay through a choice we made. One shouldn't feel sorry for one's self for taxes paid through personal choices. We smokers are an easy target, get used to it. And, as everything is "political" so it is also social. We smokers simply need to get used to it. Like the salmon, we are swimming against the current, ripe for harvest.
Base costs and taxes are the primary reason I do not encourage people to take up smoking. Health concerns are not something youngsters usually concern themselves. They believe themselves immortal. It is a totally unnecessary expense that we opt in for. Each of us, should we chose, can opt out. It's a luxury, decried by the general public, taxed heavily, not conducive to good health, and we or, at least I, knew that when I took up smoking back in the early sixties. Hell, my mother was on the local board of the American Cancer Society. I was not the brightest bulb in four-pack.
I do believe that each of us should have one, wee vice. Mine is smoking, I can afford it, enjoy it and the taxes are simply part of the deal.

sable sums it up with blessed brevity. You could write a book on the subject, but that's a paragraph that speaks volumes.