Who owns Backwoods?
Backwoods is owned by Imperial Brands (the United Kingdom, LSE: IMB).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Imperial Brands PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2025. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Imperial Brands PLC reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom, Bristol
- Origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Founded
- 1979
- Category
- Tobacco & nicotine › Tobacco products › Cigars & cigarillos
- Parent ticker
- LSE: IMB
- Trademark registrant
- ITG CIGARS INC. (USPTO)
- Last verified
- · 2 sources
About Backwoods
Backwoods is Imperial's mass market cigar brand in the USA, described in the FY2025 annual report as an "iconic heritage brand" that continued growing its share of the natural leaf cigar segment during the year, helped by new flavours and the launch of a Backwoods Wraps line and a limited City Pack collector's edition series built for cultural relevance. Backwoods sits within Imperial's mass market — not premium — cigar business; Imperial exited its premium cigar business, including Cuban and US brands such as Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta, in a two-part sale completed on 29 October 2020.
Trademark record for Backwoods
The USPTO record for the Backwoods mark lists ITG CIGARS INC. as the owner of record (serial number 73216107). A trademark is often held by a group company rather than the listed parent, so the registrant's name can differ from the owner named above.[2]
Ownership timeline of Backwoods
- Current owner Imperial Brands [1] reported
Where Backwoods sits in Imperial Brands
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Imperial Brands ownership tree →
See the full Imperial Brands brand portfolio (21) →
Other brands owned by Imperial Brands
Imperial Brands controls 21 brands on Brandtree, 20 of them in tobacco & nicotine.
Also in tobacco & nicotine
- blu (2009)
- Champion
- Crowns (2011)
- Davidoff
- Ducados
- Dutch Masters (1911)
- Fortuna
- Gauloises
- JPS
- Kool (1933)
- Lambert & Butler
- Paramount
- Parker & Simpson
- Pulze
- Riverstone
- Skruf (2003)
- West
- Winston (United States) (1954)
Other brands in cigars & cigarillos, and who owns them
The 30 brands in cigars & cigarillos on Brandtree belong to 12 owners. The largest is Villiger, with 7; Imperial Brands has 2.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Constellation | Villiger | 🇨🇭 Switzerland |
| Cohiba | Habanos | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
| Cohiba (United States) | Scandinavian Tobacco Group | 🇩🇰 Denmark |
| H. Upmann (United States) | Tabacalera USA | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Djarum Cigarillos | Djarum | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| Black & Mild | Altria | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Jose Bartolo | Eastern Company | 🇪🇬 Egypt |
| Armenteros Handrolled Cigars | ITC | 🇮🇳 India |
About the owner: Imperial Brands
Imperial Brands is a publicly listed company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom, founded in 1901. Brandtree records 21 brands under its control, and it is listed as LSE: IMB.
Imperial Brands is a British tobacco and next-generation-products group formed in 1901 as the Imperial Tobacco Company through the merger of thirteen British cigarette and tobacco manufacturers responding to American Tobacco Company's entry into the UK market. It describes itself in its FY2025 annual report as "a stronger challenger business" built on a deliberately focused portfolio of combustible, heated tobacco, vapour and modern oral nicotine brands sold across five priority combustible markets — the USA, Germany, the UK, Spain and Australia — plus growth clusters in Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and Central & Eastern Europe. Its FY2025 revenue-generating combustible categories are cigarettes, fine cut tobacco and mass market cigars; premium cigars were exited in 2020.
Imperial Brands: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
🇺🇸 Backwoods and other American brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,570 brands that began in the United States. 501 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Backwoods among them.
- ALP — Turning Point Brands 🇺🇸
- Black & Mild — Altria 🇺🇸
- Camel — Japan Tobacco 🇯🇵
- Camel (United States) — British American Tobacco 🇬🇧
- Captain Black — Scandinavian Tobacco Group 🇩🇰
- Charlie's Chalk Dust — Charlie's Holdings 🇺🇸
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Backwoods?
The parent company of Backwoods is Imperial Brands, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Is Backwoods American or British?
Backwoods originated in the United States in 1979, but it is owned today by Imperial Brands, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom. So Backwoods is an American-origin brand under British ownership.
Is Backwoods still owned by Imperial Brands?
Yes. As of 27 September 2026, Backwoods is still owned by Imperial Brands. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (2) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Imperial Brands PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2025 — Imperial Brands PLC, Annual report; retrieved 21 September 2026.
- [2] USPTO: BACKWOODS, serial 73216107, registration 1164008 — United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark registry; retrieved 27 September 2026.
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