Sobranie


Sobranie is a brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Gallaher Group, a subsidiary of Japan Tobacco.

History

Sobranie of London was established in 1879 by the Redstone family, when cigarettes had just become fashionable in Europe. It is one of the oldest cigarette brands in the world. Several generations of the Redstone family blended this tobacco from a secret formula. The original cigarettes were handmade in the Russian tradition. Sobranie was the supplier of the Imperial Court of Russia, and of the royal courts of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Spain, Romania, and Greece. In the early 1980s, the trademarks for Sobranie were sold to Gallaher Group, which continued production with a modified formula, at various places in Europe. Gallaher was subsequently purchased by Japan Tobacco in 2007. House of Sobranie offers a range of cigarettes marketed with luxury premium branding. Throughout its existence, Sobranie was marketed as the definition of luxury in the tobacco industry, being adopted as the official provider of many European royal houses and elites around the world.
Varieties marketed as premium include the evening-out styles Sobranie Cocktail and Sobranie Black Russian, which are produced in Ukraine, these being of multicoloured and black paper, respectively, with a gold foil filter end. Sobranie Cocktail, Black Russian and White Russian variants are emblazoned with the Russian imperial eagle.

Sponsorships

Formula 1

Sobranie was a sponsor of the Jordan Grand Prix team in and. The logos were displayed on the front, side and rear wing of the cars. In countries where tobacco sponsorship was forbidden, the logos were removed or replaced. Sobranie was primarily a replacement for Jordan's primary tobacco sponsor, Benson & Hedges, in United States Grands Prix, to circumvent the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, as Philip Morris USA was exclusively sponsoring Team Penske in American open-wheel racing with their Marlboro brand.

Markets

Sobranie cigarettes were mainly sold in the United Kingdom until the introduction of plain packaging, but also were or still are sold in India, Germany, Bulgaria, France, Switzerland, Poland, Romania, Greece, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Malaysia, China, Taiwan and Japan as well as many duty free shops in airports.

Products

Below are all the current brands of Sobranie cigarettes, with the levels of tar and nicotine included.