Other milestones for STG in 2020 included the integration of Agio Cigars into its company, touted as being the largest acquisition in the history of STG. With Royal Agio now part of STG, the company reports that the “expected synergies” are on track and that these will “firmly establish Scandinavian Tobacco Group as a leading company in our industry.” STG also reported that after two years, its Fueling the Growth initiative has been completed. Launched in 2018, Fueling the Growth has helped STG become more cost efficient and optimized its overall performance by modernizing its overall operations and business.
Rolling Towards 2025
With Fueling the Growth now complete, STG has revealed a new business strategy, Rolling Towards 2025. The new strategy is an evolution of Fueling the Growth, setting a clear strategic direction for STG’s next five years. Rolling Towards 2025 focuses on five must-win “battles” and a set of defined new values that will support future growth for STG. Those five must-win battles include:
- Grow STG’s handmade cigar business. “This is our primary investment focus, and we will direct our efforts at driving growth across the business, specifically in North America,” writes the company. “In the U.S. online and retail market we will strengthen our consumer orientation through improved online experience and by continuously evaluating the potential of further retail expansion.”
- Drive sustainable profit growth in machine-rolled cigars. “We want to drive sustainable profit growth in machine-rolled cigars by efficient price management and leveraging market leading positions across Europe while simplifying our portfolio to drive efficiencies.”
- Integrate new mergers and acquisitions. “We continue to look into opportunities to grow the business, strengthen our brand portfolio and leverage our costs through successful mergers and acquisitions. And we want to continue building the capabilities to successfully integrate new acquisitions.”
- Simplify everything the company does. “We want to reduce complexity and make it easier to drive the business by simplifying portfolios, operations and back office functions. We will simplify our IT infrastructure, increase digitalization across the value chain, streamline the supply chain and establish simpler and more efficient distribution.”
- Embrace a performance culture. “We want to ensure that we move in the same direction by embracing a performance culture with a strong focus on performance, learning and development in our appraisals and our everyday life allowing us to improve as a company and as individuals.”
“Rolling Towards 2025 is the natural next step in the development and professionalization of Scandinavian Tobacco Group. It cements our focus on cigars and will ultimately enable us to become a larger company, to grow EBITDA and to create outstanding cash generation to support our continued growth and for our shareholders,” stated the company in a press release.
For 2021, STG stated that it remains optimistic about the opportunities STG despite the challenging market conditions. It’s focus and mission for this year and going forward is a simple one: to achieve its vision of becoming the undisputed, global leader in cigars.
To view Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s full 2020 Annual Report, click here.
For all the latest news from Scandinavian Tobacco Group, visit st-group.com.
