Swisher International Group
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Swisher International Group has corporate headquarters in Darien, CT. The company was founded in 1861 when David Swisher received a small cigar business in settlement of a debt. Back then, cigars were only a sideline for Swisher and his four sons, just one of many notions that they hawked across the Midwest for the “rolling stores” or wagons. The company produces mass-market large cigars such as Swisher Sweets, King Edward, and Optimo; premium cigars such as Bering and Siglo 21; and little cigars (cigarillos), which also use the Swisher Sweets and King Edward brand names. It also makes smokeless tobacco products. Its moist and dry snuff offerings include the Silver Creek, Redwood, and Kayak brands; loose-leaf chewing tobacco sells under the Mail Pouch, Lancaster, and Chattanooga Chew names. An investment firm controlled by chairman and CEO William Ziegler III took Swisher private in 1999. The company's production facilities are in Jacksonville, Florida and Wheeling, West Virginia. Today, Swisher International Group is a leader in the tobacco business, accounting for one-third of the the United States' cigar sales and is America’s largest cigar exporter.
