Smoker Friendly acquires Tampa-based tobacco retail chain
BOULDER — The Cigarette Store Corp., the Gunbarrel-based company that owns and operates Smoker Friendly retail stores, announced Monday that it has completed the acquisition of Tobacco Depot and its 13 stores located in and around Tanpa, Fla.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not released.
Smoker Friendly said it will continue to operate the stores under the Tobacco Depot brand but will begin co-branding the stores “Smoker Friendly” in the near future and will introduce Smoker Friendly’s branded products in the stores.
“These stores are an excellent ‘bolt-on’ to our existing company stores in the mountain states and provide a complimentary product mix to the categories we currently sell in our stores,” said Terry Gallagher Jr., president of Smoker Friendly. “We are very excited about bringing the great premium cigar business that is established in these stores into our portfolio. Fred Hoyland and his team did a great job building the company and operating tobacco stores in this market, and we are proud Fred looked to Smoker Friendly as an acquirer when he was ready to exit the business.”
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Hoyland’s family-owned company had as many as 21 retail tobacco stores and a distribution warehouse over its 21 years of existence.
Smoker Friendly operates 103 retail outlets with a mix of tobacco stores, cigar lounges and liquor stores, as well as Gasamat gasoline stations and convenience stores in six states. Founded in 1991, it employs more than 500 people.
The Smoker Friendly deal marks the second time in less than two months that a Boulder County-based business has acquired a company in the Tampa Bay area. In March, Longmont-based Oskar Blues Brewery completed the purchase of Tampa-based Cigar City Brewing for an undisclosed sum.
