66
TOBACCO BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2014
A Bailey Backgrounder
Steven Bailey hails from a Virginia
family that has been in the tobacco
business for more than a century. His
father, Mac, was a tobacco grower
who started Golden Leaf Tobacco
Company in 1980, a company that
continues to supply tobacco to
processors and manufacturers today.
In the ’90s, Mac called on Steven to
help him develop his own cigarette
brand, an endeavor that eventually
yielded Bailey’s: a blend of 40 different
types of 90 percent American-grown
flue and burley tobaccos and a touch
of Oriental tobacco. The family
decided to form a sister company to
sell the cigarettes, and S&M Brands
was born. The Tahoe and Riverside
cigarette brands soon followed.
All of S&M’s cigarette brands
are now firmly entrenched in the
southeastern states in which they’re
sold (Virginia, West Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland,
Delaware, Georgia, Tennessee and
Kentucky).
In 2012, Bailey debuted LEX12
little cigars, a product that is smooth
and pleasurable to smoke and also has a
pleasant aroma. Like the rest of S&M’s
brands, the cigars are machine-made
and contain American-grown tobacco.
“LEX12 is not a product that people
smoke like a cigarette,” explains Bailey,
who sees it as a “bridge” product. “It’s
more of an after-dinner or with-a-
cocktail product.”
With LEX12 now a well-established
brand, the company is leveraging its
name recognition with a steady stream
of new products. Visit LEX12.com for
more information.
“LEX12 is not a
product that people
smoke like a cigarette.
It’s more of an after-
dinner or with-a-
cocktail product.”
