Well it is official, the rumors have been true all along. Samuel Gawith and Gawith Hoggarth & Co will be merging back together after 150 years. I remember hearing these rumors about a month ago and thought they were just rumors, but evidence dropped for sure yesterday.

The official release states:

After months of deliberation and negotiation I am pleased to advise that the House of Samuel Gawith and Gawith Hoggarth will merge on March 18th.

The men and machinery of SG will move to the larger and more adequate factory of GH. The men will be the same as will the machinery. The brand will be made in exactly the same way as it has been since 1792 with no change to blend, water or branding.

We see this move as a good move particularly in view of the fact that exactly 150 years ago, in 1865, the two brothers, Samuel and John shook hands and went their separate ways to pursue their own dreams in Kendal. Both SG and GH have co-existed in a peaceful, friendly but competitive way to this day.

From the article I read, it seems like the SG factory is going to become a snuff museum and all of the SG machinery will be taken too the GH&Co factory and SG blends will be produced there. No lay offs or anything like that, just GH&Co have a lot more room in their facilities and SG needs more room to operate.

Kinda cool to have the families working side by side again. That is as long as the GH&Co guys don't borrow any of the SG's guys machinery....they'll get Lakeland snot all over things and our beloved FVF or Best Brown will suddenly have an essence too it!

The article insists nothing will change product wise, everything will be produced and taste the same. Guess we will find out!