Who owns blu?
blu is owned by Imperial Brands (the United Kingdom, LSE: IMB), which has owned the brand since 12 June 2015.[1][2]
Evidence: Imperial Brands PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2025. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Imperial Brands PLC reported
- Owned since
- Owner HQ
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom, Bristol
- Origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Founded
- 2009
- Category
- Tobacco & nicotine › Nicotine alternatives › Heated tobacco & vapes
- Parent ticker
- LSE: IMB
- Trademark registrant
- FONTEM VENTURES B.V. (USPTO)
- Last verified
- · 3 sources
About blu
blu is Imperial's vapour (e-cigarette) brand, sold across Europe and the Americas in rechargeable pod-based kits including the blu bar kit and blu box kit, developed at Imperial's Liverpool "Sense Hub" after ethnographic research found vape consumers preferred trusted brands, gimmick-free products and simpler adult flavours. Imperial's FY2025 annual report describes blu as an established brand co-leading retail value in Spain and performing strongly in the UK and France, while Imperial withdrew blu from the Czech Republic and Poland during the year over regulatory cost and market-size changes, and prioritised investment in its newer Zone pouch brand over further blu expansion in the Americas.
Trademark record for blu
The USPTO record for the blu mark lists FONTEM VENTURES B.V. as the owner of record (serial number 85131287). 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.[3]
Ownership timeline of blu
- 2015 – present Imperial Brands [1][2] reported
Where blu 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
- Backwoods (1979)
- 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 heated tobacco & vapes, and who owns them
The 19 brands in heated tobacco & vapes on Brandtree belong to 10 owners. The largest is Charlie's Holdings, with 4; Imperial Brands has 2.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Charlie's Chalk Dust | Charlie's Holdings | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Feiliu | RLX Technology | 🇨🇳 China |
| glo | British American Tobacco | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| Logic | Japan Tobacco | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| FEELM | Smoore | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong |
| NJOY | Altria | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Ispire | Ispire | 🇺🇸 United States |
| lil | KT&G | 🇰🇷 South Korea |
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 →
🇬🇧 blu and other British brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 571 brands that began in the United Kingdom. 297 of them (52%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; blu is not one of them.
- Auld Kendal — Gawith Hoggarth 🇬🇧
- Dunhill — British American Tobacco 🇬🇧
- Nordic Spirit — Japan Tobacco 🇯🇵
- A.1. — Kraft Heinz 🇺🇸
- ASOS Design — ASOS 🇬🇧
- AVA — Pets at Home 🇬🇧
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of blu?
The parent company of blu is Imperial Brands, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Is blu British?
Yes. blu originated in the United Kingdom in 2009 and its owner, Imperial Brands, is also headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Since when has Imperial Brands owned blu?
Imperial Brands has owned blu since 12 June 2015.
Is blu still owned by Imperial Brands?
Yes. As of 27 September 2026, blu is still owned by Imperial Brands. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (3) & 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] Reynolds American Inc., Form 8-K, 12 June 2015 (completion of the Lorillard merger and the divestiture to ITG Brands) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Form 8-K, published 12 June 2015; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [3] USPTO: BLU, serial 85131287, registration 4750245 — United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark registry; retrieved 27 September 2026.
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