John Middleton Co., a subsidiary of Altria Group, is the second largest manufacturer of large machine-made cigars, and a maker of pipe tobacco.
Black & Mild is the top-selling cigar in the five-pack category in the United States, with nearly a third of the market in 2009.
In 1968, using Middleton's Cherry Blend (its best-selling brand at the time), the company began making pipe-tobacco cigars.
By the late 1980s, John Middleton Co. had bought the pipe tobacco brands Kentucky Club, Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Apple and Royal Comfort.
[4] In 1997, the company bought a facility in Limerick, Pennsylvania, which became its primary manufacturing location the next year.