Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada was created in 1908 out of the merger of the Canadian interests of the American Tobacco Company with local Canadian tobacco companies.
American Tobacco, which had acquired the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, makers of the then-popular cigarette brand Sweet Caporal (which commanded a 50% share of the Canadian cigarette market at the time Imperial Tobacco acquired American Tobacco), had entered the Canadian market by acquiring the Montréal-based American Cigarette Company and D. Ritchie and Company, forming the American Tobacco Company of Canada, Ltd.[1] Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada Ltd. was created out of the cigarette companies founded by Bartholome Houde and George E. Tuckett.[2]