Who owns Kool?
Kool, a tobacco brand, 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 States
- Founded
- 1933
- Category
- Tobacco & nicotine › Tobacco products › Cigarettes
- Parent ticker
- LSE: IMB
- Trademark registrant
- ITG BRANDS, LLC (USPTO)
- Last verified
- · 4 sources
About Kool
Kool is a menthol cigarette brand that came to Imperial's US subsidiary ITG Brands in the same 12 June 2015 acquisition of four cigarette brands — Winston, Kool, Salem and Maverick — from Reynolds American and Lorillard. Imperial's FY2025 annual report says it launched KOOL Black during the year to help offset overall Kool performance against increased competitor discounting in the menthol segment, part of Imperial's wider strategy of defending combustible market share in the Americas through targeted brand-equity investment.
Trademark record for Kool
The USPTO record for the Kool mark lists ITG BRANDS, LLC as the owner of record (serial number 71542076). 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 Kool
- 2015 – present Imperial Brands [1][2] reported
Where Kool 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)
- blu (2009)
- Champion
- Crowns (2011)
- Davidoff
- Ducados
- Dutch Masters (1911)
- Fortuna
- Gauloises
- JPS
- Lambert & Butler
- Paramount
- Parker & Simpson
- Pulze
- Riverstone
- Skruf (2003)
- West
- Winston (United States) (1954)
Other brands in cigarettes, and who owns them
Imperial Brands has more brands in cigarettes on Brandtree than any other owner: 11 of 81.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| GG Mild | Gudang Garam | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| Camel (United States) | British American Tobacco | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| American Legend | Karelia | 🇬🇷 Greece |
| Boston (Eastern cigarettes) | Eastern Company | 🇪🇬 Egypt |
| Djarum 76 | Djarum | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| Capstan | ITC | 🇮🇳 India |
| Camel | Japan Tobacco | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| L&M (United States) | Altria | 🇺🇸 United States |
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 →
🇺🇸 Kool 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, Kool 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 Kool?
The parent company of Kool is Imperial Brands, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Is Kool American or British?
Kool originated in the United States in 1933, but it is owned today by Imperial Brands, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom. So Kool is an American-origin brand under British ownership.
Since when has Imperial Brands owned Kool?
Imperial Brands has owned Kool since 12 June 2015.
Is Kool still owned by Imperial Brands?
Yes. As of 27 September 2026, Kool is still owned by Imperial Brands. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (4) & 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: KOOL, serial 71542076, registration 508538 — United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark registry; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [4] ITG Brands: Our Brands — Kool — ITG Brands, LLC, Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
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