Thank-You Mr. Wortzel!

[dd57chevy]

I watched the whole video . I think Leonard is a decent guy who is in a large corporation . He really can't divulge (or doesn't know) what will happen to every specific brand . He did give indications of the probability of enthusiasts being able to give input/suggestions at some point.........

I do have a question on more basic question : Ok , Mac Baron owned Sutliff & were bought out by STG ........do we know why Sutliff was immediately liquidated ? Were they unprofitable ?

 

[sablebrush52]

I watched the whole video . I think Leonard is a decent guy who is in a large corporation . He really can't divulge (or doesn't know) what will happen to every specific brand . He did give indications of the probability of enthusiasts being able to give input/suggestions at some point.........

I do have a question on more basic question : Ok , Mac Baron owned Sutliff & were bought out by STG ........do we know why Sutliff was immediately liquidated ? Were they unprofitable ?

Sutliff was profitable, according to Leonard Wortzel, and he says that he was surprised by the STD's decision to abruptly close them down, thinking that it would be a gradual process akin to the MacBaren timetable.

If I were to hazard a guess, STD's analysts looked at the numbers and decided that it would be more efficient to close the facility and keep the portfolio of blends. Waiting would just delay the inevitable complications of disposing of the facility.

Much of Sutliff's production consisted of a large number of blends that sold in small amounts, which didn't fit into STD's philosophy of mass market efficiency to maximize profits and raise the value of the publicly traded company. They'll keep production going, in Assens, of the few Sutliff blends with a large enough following to meet their metric.

 

[AroEnglish]

It was Lane who made Edgeworth Ready Rubbed, though Sutliff did make an EGRR match after Lane discontinued it. In any case I sure hope they bring it back! STG's Lane division would do well to reissue some old blends to fill in some of the gaps in the market left by the shuttering of Sutliff.


Edit: Oh wait, I think you were asking about Edward G Robinson, not Edgeworth Ready Rubbed! That was Sutliff who made that one. I still want Edgeworth back though!

Yeah I was thinking about Edward G, but I can see how that acronym could be confused with Edgeworth.

 

[dd57chevy]

Sutliff was profitable, according to Leonard Wortzel, and he says that he was surprised by the STD decision to abruptly close them down, thinking that it would be a gradual process akin to the MacBaren timetable.

If I were to hazard a guess, STD's analysts looked at the numbers and decided that it would be more efficient to close the facility and keep the portfolio of blends.

Much of Sutliff's production consisted of a large number of blends that sold in small amounts, which didn't fit into STD's

 

[Zamora]

I didn't even know EGR was every brought back, I thought it had been gone for decades

 

[NookersTheCat]

If I were to hazard a guess, STD's analysts looked at the numbers and decided that it would be more efficient to close the facility and keep the portfolio of blends. Waiting would just delay the inevitable complications of disposing of the facility.

I also think the other issue, as was alluded to by others (including Per Jenson, iirc), is that this purchase deal itself was rushed through extremely quickly due to an imminent strengthening of Denmark's Anti-Trust Laws which would have almost certainly made it illegal (STG being seen as having monopolistic levels of control on the worldwide pipe tobacco market).

I'm sure that shuttering and scrapping the entire physical US portion of the business (pretty much everything other than the IP) helped with making Danish law-makers believe it was "just a small acquisition, and STG is still a modest company with presence in only Denmark at 2, soon to be only 1, factory(ies)"... Again, just a speculation but an informed one based upon all the news I've seen so far.

 

[dd57chevy]

Kind of an interesting historic video about Sutliff :

 

[Zamora]

I also think the other issue, as was alluded to by others (including Per Jenson, iirc), is that this purchase deal itself was rushed through extremely quickly due to an imminent strengthening of Denmark's Anti-Trust Laws which would have almost certainly made it illegal (STG being seen as having monopolistic levels of control on the worldwide pipe tobacco market).

I'm sure that shuttering and scrapping the entire physical US portion of the business (pretty much everything other than the IP) helped with making Danish law-makers believe it was "just a small acquisition, and STG is still a modest company with presence in only Denmark at 2, soon to be only 1, factory(ies)"... Again, just a speculation but an informed one based upon all the news I've seen so far.

It always amazed me they weren't targeted by anti trust laws, sounds like strengthening them was too little too late.