STG Raises Prices Across Its U.S. Cigar Portfolio
Effective August 3, 2026, STG is raising prices on the handmade cigars sold through its two U.S. divisions, Forged Cigar Co. and General Cigar Co. Between them the two companies account for nearly 750 different SKUs, a list that includes some of the most familiar names on American shelves: Alec Bradley, CAO, Macanudo, the non-Cuban version of Cohiba, Punch, La Gloria Cubana, Hoyo de Monterrey, Diesel, Partagas, Room101, Bolivar, El Rey del Mundo, Excalibur, and several others. If you smoke premium cigars with any regularity, the odds are good that at least a few of your regular choices sit inside this portfolio.
For more than 80 percent of those items the wholesale price, the figure a retailer pays before discounts, shipping, taxes or fees, is climbing by an average of 4.2 percent. A small group of cigars, about 2 percent of the list, is taking a steeper hit. The largest single jump belongs to the Punch Deluxe Chateau Maduro, which is rising 15.3 percent.
On top of the base price changes, STG is also lifting its import surcharge from 6 percent to 7 percent. That surcharge was put in place after the current round of U.S. tariffs on imported cigars began, and it will apply even to the cigars whose wholesale prices are not moving. In practical terms, almost nothing in the portfolio will cost a retailer the same amount this week as it did last week.
Gene Richter, STG’s vice president of sales for North America, explained the decision in a letter to retailers. He pointed to inflation and higher operating costs as the primary drivers. He also repeated a promise the company has made before: if the tariffs are eventually removed, the import surcharge will disappear with them. STG owns factories in Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, the three countries that supply the overwhelming majority of premium cigars sold in the United States. Recent adjustments to the tariff schedule left Honduras at 10 percent while raising the rate on cigars from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic to 12.5 percent. Those higher duties land directly on STG’s cost structure.
For retailers the increase means higher acquisition costs starting this week. For smokers it will translate, sooner or later, into higher prices on the shelf. The leaves cost more, the shipping costs more, and the final bill has a reliable habit of ending up in the same place.