Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) has provided an update on its business as it and the world continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new press release, the company states that the negative impact of COVID-19 has had lesser of an impact than originally anticipated. In a surprising development, STG reports that tobacco consumption across markets and categories has shown significant resilience through the pandemic.
STG attributes the increase in consumption of handmade cigars and a growth in its online business to consumers in the U.S. being able to work from home during the pandemic. This, along with a stronger than anticipated resilience in sales volumes of machine-made cigars and smoking tobacco and a continued strong internal cost focus, has attributed to a 4.9 percent organic growth in net sales. STG also reports having a 21 percent organic growth in EBITDA and free cash flow before acquisitions of DKK 547 million.
 revises its full-year financial guidance as it evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on its business.){kind=link}