Sanders to Retire, Bumbacco New CEO At Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company
SANTA FE, N.M. – Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, founded in New Mexico’s capital city in 1982, has a new president and chief executive officer.
Nicholas A. Bumbacco, 44, now leads a growing company that manufactures and markets Natural American Spirit tobacco products and markets Dunhill cigarettes.
Bumbacco, Canadian by birth, comes to Santa Fe with more than 20 years of experience in the global tobacco industry. He assumed the top job at Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company (SFNTC) on March 1. He has held increasingly responsible managerial positions with Imperial Tobacco in Canada, British American Tobacco and Reynolds American Inc. Before joining the tobacco industry, he was involved in the bar and restaurant business in Canada, helping grow a chain to nine restaurants.
He replaces Richard M. Sanders, 56, who will remain in an advisory position with the company, focusing on SFNTC’s international business interests, before retiring July 1. Sanders became president and chief executive officer of SFNTC in 2002 and has led the company through unparalleled growth while maintaining the character, values and vision of a company that prides itself in being different.
SFNTC has grown to more than 400 employees, with 135 based at its home offices in Santa Fe. Under Sanders’ leadership, the company’s share of the U.S. market has grown 170 percent. Manufacturing capacity expanded 300 percent and the sales force increased 14 fold. Sanders oversaw the construction and move to the company’s new adobe-style, energy-efficient building in 2004. In 2007, SFNTC was named one of the best places to work in New Mexico.
In 2008, the company was recognized as a “Green Partner” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for filling 100 percent of its electric power needs via purchasing windmill-generated energy for its Santa Fe headquarters, manufacturing operations in North Carolina and distribution center in Nevada.
The company’s pioneering efforts to promote sustainable tobacco farming were documented in a book published in early 2009, Organic Tobacco Growing in America and Other Earth-Friendly Farming (Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, N.M.).
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Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, based in Santa Fe, N.M., was founded in 1982. The company’s line of natural tobacco products includes cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco made with 100 percent certified organic tobacco as well as cigarettes made with 100 percent additive-free natural tobacco. The company also markets imported Dunhill cigarettes. For more information: www.sfntc.com
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