Altria may sell Nat Sherman

[TommyBB]

cA is reporting, this morning, that Altria is exploring its options with regard to selling Nat Sherman International.

“While we recognize the strength and value of the premium cigar business, it’s not core to Altria’s tobacco portfolio so we are exploring options for NSI,” said Jessica Pierucki, Altria’s general manager, managing director for Nat Sherman, in a statement emailed to Cigar Aficionado. She called Nat Sherman International “a terrific business.”

“I’m very optimistic for the future,” says Michael Herklots, vice president of Nat Sherman International, who has been instrumental to the company’s cigar business since 2011. “We’re operating under business as usual for whatever transition is to come. I look forward to the next chapter of our story.”

In a conversation at the 2019 PCA trade show, Herklots said Nat Sherman International was expanding. “We continue to grow year after year,” he said.

Altria acquired Nat Sherman from the Sherman family in January 2017, for undisclosed terms. Altria had a cigar segment at the time, but it was not a premium business; Altria is the owner of Black & Mild, a machine-made brand sold in convenience stores.

Michael Herklots is a member here under "mherklots" I have met him a few times, he's good at his job, and a super-friendly person, as well.

I cut my teeth in the late 1990s on friend-suggested Nat Sherman cigars, Metropolitan series, so they have a soft-spot in my heart even though I have not tried one in a long time, now. When my older son was really small, we would drive to uptown New Orleans to go to Dos Jefes Cigar Shop which was the only tobacconist in town to carry Nat Sherman. It was a great little shop, they have since moved from that Magazine Street location to Tchoupitoulas Street as Dos Jefes Cigar Bar, with only ONE humidor cabinet, but it's the city's premier cigar venue with live music every night.