Gallaher Group
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.