The Cigarette Store Corp. (TCSC) , doing business as (dba) Smoker Friendly, has acquired the 22 Tobacco Road Outlet (TRO) stores based in North Carolina.

Smoker Friendly will rebrand them ‘Smoker Friendly’ and introduce the Smoker Friendly brand family of tobacco products at the acquired stores immediately.

“These stores provide a great opportunity to expand our corporate store footprint with our existing company stores in the mountain states and Florida,” said TCSC/Smoker Friendly President Terry Gallagher Jr. “We are very excited about bringing these stores and their great team into our portfolio.”

Smoker Friendly said it will operate these with the same dedication to customer service and product selection as previously provided, maintaining the team of TRO employees. It plans to use the acquisition to expand its footprint in the North Carolina retail tobacco market.

“Rex and Andy Whitaker and their team did a great job building the company and operating tobacco stores in North Carolina and we are proud the Whitakers looked to Smoker Friendly as the acquirer when they were ready to exit the business,” said Gallagher.

Boulder-based TCSC is the largest licensee of Smoker Friendly International and operate 157 retail tobacco outlets with a mix of tobacco stores, cigar lounges, liquor stores and gas stations under the Smoker Friendly, Tobacco Depot, paylesscigarsandpipes.com and Gasamat banners in eight states.