Xuan Wu International Group Holding Company Acquires The Standard Tobacco Company of Pennsylvania LtdPress Release | 03/12/2018
Bethlehem PA March 12, 2018. Xuan Wu International Group Holding Company (OTC Pink: XNWU) announces the acquisition in an all-stock transaction of The Standard Tobacco Company of Pennsylvania Ltd and its subsidiary SToP Brands, Inc. and the disposal of its Chinese aggregates business to the former management.
About Standard Tobacco Company of Pennsylvania Ltd
The Standard Tobacco Company of Pennsylvania, otherwise known as Standard Tobacco or SToP was formed in 2014 as a Nevada C Corporation. The sole purpose of this corporate entity was to acquire abandoned U.S trade marks for iconic brands of U.K. pipe tobaccos from the 1950s and 1960s that had previously been sold in the U.S. domestic market.
Standard Tobacco has successfully developed a catalogue of trademarks which include such well-known names as John Cottons, Murrays, War Horse Bar and Bengal Slices to name a few. Each of these trademarks have many derivative or sub-brands of pipe tobacco, for example John Cottons also applies to brands such as John Cottons 1&2 or John Cottons Virginia.
In July of 2015, Standard Tobacco entered into a licensing agreement with Cigars International, a division of Meier & Dutch which in turn is owned by STG to license for three years the use of Standard Tobaccos trademarks on specific blends of tobacco that seek to recreate the taste profiles of the original blends in exchange for a royalty payment of fifty cents per 50g tin of tobacco sold.
Standard Tobacco neither manufactures, sells or distributes tobacco but is simply licensing its catalogue of tobacco brand trademarks to the manufacturer and as such falls totally outside the remit of the new FDA rules of tobacco. Standard Tobacco handles some promotion and appears at trade shows and conventions whilst U.S. wide distribution to the various B&M outlets and on-line sales are handled by C.I.s fulfillment and operations center based in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.
To date, the company maintains a very active presence on Face Book with an excellent following on the Face Book page Standard Tobacco as well as the companys web site www.standardtobacco.com. In addition to this Standard Tobacco has been interviewed on several radio shows, has numerous YouTube films about itself and personnel as well printed magazine articles and a very active international following on all the major pipe smokers forums and chatrooms with its products being one of the most widely reviewed products in the U.S pipe smoking market.
The companys success can be attributed to its attention to detail in acquiring original samples of the tobacco sold under the various trademarks that Standard Tobacco owns and having these analyzed to ascertain the exact historic composition of the blends and as far as possible have them copied or matched by the blenders at Meier & Dutch. To date our blends have been noted as indistinguishable from the original John Cottons blends available to U.S pipe smokers in the 1970s and our Bengal Slices blend remains one of Cigars International best-selling niche blends of 2016-2018 as well as being on continual back order due to demand outstripping available stocks.
The recent announcement of the reintroduction in October 2016 of the War Horse Bar, a plug tobacco last sold in the U.S. in the early 1960s has generated enormous excitement in the pipe smoking community and Standard Tobacco expects this to be one of the best-selling tobacco lines at C.I. through most of 2018 and beyond.
As part of the companys diversification plans Standard Tobacco intends to introduce a range of ash trays, lighters and sweat shirts as well as other branded smokers paraphernalia to be made available through B&M tobacconists, trade shows as well as through its proposed direct sales platform. It is the companys intention to exploit the value of its various trademarks to maximize shareholder return and free cash flow. As a secondary tenant of the companys expansion plan Standard Tobacco intends to register its trademarks in Europe and the Far East and negotiate a similar agreement with a European manufacturer to allow the reintroduction of the former blends back initially into Great Britain and then Europe as a whole. Management will also be actively exploring the demand for its products in the Far East with a focus on the burgeoning Chinese pipe smoking market.
History of Standard Tobaccos Trademarks:
Standard Tobacco or SToP owns five premier trademarks granted to the company or its predecessor, these are War Horse, John Cottons, Murrys, Bengal Slices and Dobies Four Square. Each of these trademarks form into derivative brands such as John Cottons No. 1 and Nos. 1&2, John Cottons Latakia, John Cottons Smyrna as well as numerous John Cottons sub branded tobaccos sold by C.I. on their website www.pipesandcigars.com. Except for John Cottons which goes back to the 1760s most of the other U.S trademarks held by Standard Tobacco date back to the early 20th century and were in wide spread commerce until at least the early 1980s when they were abandoned by the U.S. agents for Gallahers and Imperial Tobacco in the United Kingdom.
Management of Standard Tobacco
The company is led by John Fruhmann a retired executive from Pfizer with extensive experience of sitting on the board of a public company. All legal and trademark matters are handled by Roger L. Fidler Esq. a member of the Patent Bar and a Securities Attorney. Additional appointments will be announced over the coming weeks with regard to merchandizing and the companies revamped website and merchandizing direct sales platform.
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