8月2日，世界上最大的手工雪茄廠之一，加西亞煙草廠（Tabacalera de Garcia）正式有了新的主人，歸屬于總部位于西班牙馬德里的西班牙煙草集團（Tabacalera Group）。

2017年以來，加西亞煙草廠是帝國煙草集團（Imperial Brands PLC）的一部分，它位于多米尼加的拉羅馬納，非古版本的蒙特、羅密歐與朱麗葉、烏普曼、VF以及很多其他品牌都產自這里。

2020年時，帝國煙草以12.25億歐元的價格將旗下的手工雪茄業務出售，當時加西亞煙草廠既生產機制雪茄，也生產手工雪茄。2020年的交易前不久，隸屬于新加西亞煙草廠的一棟大樓已經開始建造，當時計劃將手工雪茄和機制雪茄業務分離。耗資1500萬歐元興建的新加西亞煙草廠7月份剛竣工。新建筑物占地超過30萬平方英尺，擁有2100多名員工，可容納1000多名卷茄師同時工作。年產量大概是4000多萬支手工雪茄。

雖然新工廠在興建，雖然手工雪茄業務要被出售，但是加西亞煙草廠的手工雪茄業務一直沒有中斷。以前的工廠建筑已經更名為帝國煙草拉羅馬納工廠，現在還屬于帝國煙草公司，只不過只是在從事機制雪茄業務。

8月2日，6900萬歐元的收購款全部支付完畢，工廠的交易正式完成。

這筆交易前后歷時兩年，帝國煙草公司剝離了手工雪茄業務，通過兩次交易將業務出售給其他公司。向聯合煙草公司（ Allied Cigar Corporation S.L）出售了古巴哈伯納斯煙草公司（Habanos S.A.）50%的股權。向寶石投資控股公司（Gemstone Investment Holding Ltd.）出售了帝國煙草的美國機構，作價2億美元，包括美國煙草（Tabacalera USA）、美國阿塔迪斯（Altadis USA）、在線零售商JR雪茄、雪茄在線以及哈瓦那之家零售門店，還包括加西亞煙草廠、洪都拉斯的卡潘之花雪茄廠（Flor de Copan factory）。

Tabacalera de Garcia, one of the world’s largest handmade cigar factories, has been completely rebuilt and has a new owner. Today, the facility was officially transferred to Tabacalera Group, headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

Located in La Romana in the Dominican Republic, Tabacalera de Garcia is where the non-Cuban versions of Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann and many other brands have long been rolled. The factory has been a part of Britain’s Imperial Brands PLC since 2017.

Imperial sold its premium cigar division to an investment group for $1.225 billion euros (worth $1.2 billion today) back in 2020, when Tabacalera de Garcia made both machine-made cigars (with brands such as Backwoods) and premium cigars. Shortly before the deal in 2020, construction began on a new facility meant to separate machine-made operations from premium, resulting in the new Tabacalera de Garcia. The massive factory is a 15-million-euro facility (about $15.3 million) dedicated solely to crafting premium cigars by hand. Construction was just completed in July.

Despite the project, and despite the change in ownership, the production of handmade cigars for Tabacalera continued without interruption during the construction process and sale. The building that previously served as Tabacalera de Garcia has been renamed Imperial Tobacco La Romana, and is now a machine-made operation that still belongs to Imperial. The new, sprawling building that is now Tabacalera de Garcia spans more than 300,000 square feet with more than 2,100 employees and the capacity for more than 1,000 cigar rollers. According to Tabacalera, it has the ability to produce 40 million cigars by hand a year.

The official transfer of the factory was dependent on a deferred payment of 69 million euros (about $70.4 million). Now that the payment has gone through, the transfer was finalized today.?

Fernando Domínguez, CEO of Tabacalera Group, noted: "With the entry of Tabacalera de García into the Group, the factory is situated at the epicenter of the business due to its relevance as the art of making cigars is the essence of the business and because it represents the most important group of people of the company”.

This transaction has been two years in the making. When Imperial divested the premium side of the business, it sold off its assets in two transactions to corporations owned by the investment group. One part of the sale included 50 percent of Cuban monopoly Habanos S.A. That was acquired by Allied Cigar Corporation S.L. Imperial’s U.S. division was sold for $200 million to a company named Gemstone Investment Holding Ltd. That part of the sale included Tabacalera USA and its assets Altadis USA, which is responsible for distributing premium cigars in the United States, online retailers JR Cigar, Serious Cigars and Cigars.com, plus the Casa de Montecristo retail chain. Tabacalera de Garcia, as well as the Flor de Copan factory in Honduras, were also part of the deal.?

Tabacalera de Garcia produces a large portfolio of handmade cigars, including Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, VegaFina and Onyx.?