Where is Samuel Gawith produced?

[fmw]

I've always read, including on their own website, that Samuel Gawith tobaccos are produced in Kendal, Great Britain. In fact, it is regularly hailed as one of the few remaining British made tobaccos. However, I just saw SG being listed as "one of our brands" on the Kohlase & Kopp website, which is the German company that also produces for Peterson's, Rattray's, Solani and Rainer Long Golden Flake.

See http://www.kohlhase-tobacco.com/. Did they outsource blending due to the supply problems? Is the SG on the German market blended in Germany and the rest in the US? Or does this just mean that Kohlhase & Kopp bought part of the SG company and everything is made where it has always has been?

EDIT: I sent an e-mail to the public address listed on the SG website to find out more.

 

[Buddy Springman]

Nothing surprises me about who-is-blending-what anymore. Be interesting to see the response you get.

Buddy

 

[fmw]

Quick response from Bob Gregory from Samuel Gawith:

Dear Mr de Waard
Thank you wanting to try Sq Leader, it is a fine brand and our No 1 mixture
world-wide.
SG has been making tobaccos in Kendal for about 200 years and we intend to
continue this practice, to ask another company to make it for us is
"un-thinkable". So as you can see, we make our own brands, KK do not. KK is
our German distributor and perhaps it is slightly misleading to write "Our
brands". I will draw their attention to this.
Hopefully you will find Samuel Gawith tobaccos (and snuffs) in Antwerp and
hopefully you will truly enjoy what you find.
If you have any difficulty, then Vinche & Koopmans is our distributor in
Belgium and you will find them extremely helpful in any event. Their mail
address is [email protected] and their telephone no is 0032 89 86 46 22.
Best regards
Bob Gregory

The contrast between communicating with this company and Villiger Stokkebye, for example, is huge. Unlike Villiger they know what they are producing, without having to internally ping-pong e-mails between ten different people first.

 

[Eric]

I had the exact same reaction when I saw SG on the K&K website about 3 or 4 months ago. It was sort of.. creepy. I was heartened to learn, at that time, that K&K is only a distributor, but I'm even more heartened by the above, emphatic letter. Its good to read that time honored tradition matters at SG.

 

[Buddy Springman]

I know Synjeco's has fresh SG plugs. If SG is in the distribution channels in Europe now, I wonder what the problem is on the west side of the pond.

Buddy

 

[TallSmoke]

That is an interesting bit to know. How's their US supply coming along, I wonder? Hopefully they will double up their production this time around.