Multiple-cross hybrids are routinely used in several outcrossing crops mainly to bypass difficulties in commercial hybrid seed production. An advantage of using a multiple-cross hybrid in tobacco, a self-pollinating crop, may lie in adding some variation to a cultivar thus making it more flexible in its response to environmental variability – e.g. soil- or weather-related. Even though self-fertile cultivars may show some residual variation left deliberately by the breeder, single-cross hybrids, now prevalent, are most often based on homozygous lines rather than cultivars and lack any inherent genetical variability. Another possible benefit may consist in more flexibility in constructing useful genotypes from available parental inbred lines or varieties. The main issue is the choice of the original inbred lines so that the introduced variation does not compromise the homogeneity of the agronomic traits required of a cultivar. Several three line hybrids of flue-cured tobacco were produced, tested and compared against corresponding single-cross (F₁) hybrids based on the same true-breeding lines. One of these three line hybrids, dubbed VRG 5 TL, was found to out-yield two F₁ hybrid combinations which involved the true-breeding parent and either of the homozygous lines used to produce the F1 parent. VRG 5TL has been recently successfully released to tobacco growers in Poland. It shows acceptable agronomic performance which is in many ways superior to that of formerly released and widely grown F₁ hybrids.