United Cigar Stores Limited was a Canadian chain of cigar stores based in Toronto, Ontario which at one point had operations across the country. It once included United Cigar Store Agencies, which operated as franchisers of the brand.
The red fronted buildings once spotted the Toronto landscape, but had largely disappeared by the late 1990s, shortly after the company had been acquired from Imasco by Hachette Distribution Services, when the vast majority of locations were renamed Great Canadian News Co.[1] However, at least one location, in the basement of the Toronto Coach Terminal, had remained under the United Cigar Stores name.
In 2014, LS Travel Retail (the former HDS, which had been acquired by Lagardère Group) sold the chains to Gateway Newstands, which promptly rebranded all locations (including the Toronto Coach Terminal store) under its own banner.[2]