I recall that the manufacturer of the J&H Wilson line has moved around a bit in the last two decades or so (including to South Africa at one point I believe), both when the brand was under Imperial and then after the MacBaren acquisition, but at present I am unable to figure out who currently manufacturers the line.

Does anyone happen to know who is currently making it and where?

@Demigros first of all, welcome to Snuffhouse.

Good question. Last time I looked I thought it was still whoever currently owns the Imperial brand (JTI?).

Perhaps @SimplySnuff or @EricPerlinger might have some idea?

I’m not sure who manufacturers it

@MrSnuff thank you for the welcome, as well as for the reply, and @SimplySnuff as well.

Normally, I have been able to suss out these types of things through opensource information online, but this one has been a bit of a bear. If I figure it out, I will certainly report back. In the meanwhile, perhaps another member who knows will step in with the information.

If I remember correctly, the company passed into the hands of Imperial Tobacco in the 1950s. And I don’t think anything has changed about that.

The funnier issue with should lie with individual brands, such as with Kensington. Which originally belonged to J&H Wilson, but then was made by Germans (Konstanz) and Swedes (Swedish Match). There was even a theory that the Swedes left production in Germany and did it in the Arnold Andre factory. At least ten years ago, Swedish Match went into some kind of merger and now it’s basically the Danes who own the brand.

As for the African Wilsons, I’m not 100% sure what the story was with them, but I do know that somewhere long ago someone was on their trail. Considering that the African producer Dingler was bought out by Swedish Match, it was probably as part of, let’s say a little plagiarism, that the competition took names such as Singletons or Wilsons for themselves.

@Filek thanks for replying on this.

MacBaren acquired the J&H Wilson marque from Imperial in 2015, along with a number of other marques previously owned by them, see: https://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-news/mac-baren-acquires-brands-from-imperial-tobacco.

Current production stickers, on the back of the tap tins at least, note “Snuff Made for MacBaren Tobacco Company.”

I am increasingly thinking that Sharrow Mills is making it for MacBaren at the moment, even through the production batch codes on the labels seem a bit odd as per current Wilsons & Co. produced snuffs, e.g. “150 20A” or “T019D” on a current SP 1 and Top Mill respectively. However, there are edge sealing labels on these tap tins which do not appear on other Wilsons & Co. tap tins that I have seen recently, and the color of the plastic base is different from all of the other Wilsons & Co. produced tap tins I’ve seen as of late (navy blue vs. black).

I couldn’t find a listing in the usual UK gov. registry docs. for current UK-made tobacco products, though, so am just guessing re: Sharrow making these for MacBaren however.

I am sure someone here knows, and will weigh in eventually as to where they are being made at present.

I’m a bit out of the loop on tobacco issues as I haven’t used it for a couple of years now. However, I searched for a while and found out that the Czechs were also interested in the topic of who currently produces these snuffs. Of course, the answer was Wilsons of Sharrow. And this is quite interesting, because the same company boasts on its website that in 2016 they bought the recipe for Dr. Rumneys from Imperial Tobacco.

Correct. J&H W and Hedges currently are manufactured by WoS. This was confirmed by Mac Baren in personal communication between their sales manager and some r/nasalsnuff member.

Thank you for confirming the suspicion re: Wilsons (there are not too much in the way of other potential UK manufacturers anyways, now are there!).