MS is an Italian brand of cigarettes currently owned by the "Monopolio di Stato" or State Monopoly in English and manufactured by BAT Italia, a division of British American Tobacco. The name is an acronym meaning "Messis Summa", a reminder of the old State Monopoly name. In more recent times, MS has also become a joke acronym for "morte sicura", meaning "certain death" in English. MS was manufactured by the Italian company Ente Tabacchi Italiani and owned by the State Monopoly, until E.T.I was bought by British American Tobacco in 2004, making MS part of the BAT Italia line of brands. Currently MS is mainly sold in Italy, but they are also sold in various European countries, like in Austria and Spain.
History
MS was originally founded in 1969 by the Italian company "Ente Tabacchi Italiani" and owned by the State Monopoly. Within a few years, it became the most popular brand of cigarettes in Italy due to the strong sense of "Italianism" the brand portrays. The brand has appeared in many Italian movies, especially during the 1970s, and was even endorsed by Italian actorNino Manfredi. MS grew in popularity and in the mid-1980s, it reached its peak in sales. During that time, the brand also expanded in variants. MS was manufactured for years at the Manifattura Tabacchi plant in the city of Roverto, Trentino. The factory was so important that it had its own set of train tracks leading from the railway station directly into the plant. The tracks of the line that led to the Stazione Leopolda passed through the factory, in the direction of Cascine, passing under the railway bridge. The building was built during the Fascist era for the production of cigarettes. Over time, the Tobacco Factory replaced the two factories used for processing tobacco located at the ex-convent of St. Ursula. A plaque in the Piazza Puccini recalls how the Tobacco Factory was on the war front along the Mugone river in August 1944 and was subject to fierce fighting between the partisan fighter of the Italian resistance movement and forces of the Italian Social Republic and Nazi Germany during the Italian Civil War The factory closed down on the 16th of March 2001, but MS cigarettes continue to be manufactured in Lecce, Apulia. The tobacco used for MS cigarettes was originally grown in Sardinia.
