Once again a World War brought a sharp increase in the nation’s demand for cigarettes, coinciding with an inevitable scarcity of tobacco leaf. This brought about a shortage of both Carreras and its competitors' products, a situation which was not alleviated until the early 1950s. In 1953, Carreras acquired the assets of R & J Hill Limited of London and the entire share capital of Murray, Sons & Company Limited of Belfast who were manufacturing a range of popular pipe tobaccos, including Erinmore Mixture and Erinmore Flake.