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In the
1920s, Tampa was the cigar capital of the world, with an annual production of
up to 500 million cigars in some 200 factories.
JC Newman
Cigar Co., the oldest family-owned premium cigar company in the United States,
established itself in that city in 1954, after starting operations in 1895 in
Cleveland, Ohio. The move was a consequence of the decision to return to the production
of hand-rolled cigars, after having been fully dedicated to machine-rolled
production since 1927. To start again in that segment of the market, the ideal
was to settle in Tampa, Florida, because at that time it was the epicenter of
manufacturing, with a production of more than 300 million units a year at that
time.
For its
part, the Arturo Fuente factory was created in 1912 by the Cuban immigrant of
the same name, who arrived from Cuba and settled in Tampa, Florida, after the
Spanish-American War. In just 12 years, it had already become a company of 500
workers, although at the end of 1924 they stopped producing as a result of a
fire that destroyed the facilities. Their return to the market occurred in
1946, when they managed to recover from the losses they had and also had
already ended the Great Depression and World War II.
During
those years, each of the companies expanded their business and their prestige
despite the adverse conditions of a market that was mostly loyal to traditional
Cuban brands and smokers unwilling to try new ones, despite the fact that
cigars were made with Cuban tobacco leaves.
After the
US embargo on Cuba in 1960, the US market for premium cigars changed
substantially, driven by restrictions on imports from the island. From that
moment on, the Arturo Fuente company began a slow but sustained growth until
reaching the current prestige of being one of the most acclaimed manufacturers
of premium hand-rolled cigars outside of Cuba.
For his
part, JC Newman, in a historic decision, began to produce a tobacco with a
Cameroon wrapper: the Cuesta-Rey # 95, since then and for decades converted
into an emblematic premium cigar that meant a true revolution in the industry.
In 1986,
the two companies, which had been part of the local Tampa cigar producers
association for 32 years, entered into a strategic alliance. At that time,
Carlos, successor of Arturo Fuente, who wanted to focus all his efforts on his
growth in the Dominican Republic operations where he had recently moved, but
did not want to abandon his Moya brand, made in Tampa, asked Stanford Newman,
director of JC Newman, if he would be willing to make it in his historic El
Reloj factory. For his part, Stanford, aware of the boom in the US market for
artisanal cigars imported from countries such as the Dominican Republic and
Nicaragua, agreed to make the cigar for Fuente, if Carlos, in turn, created a
hand-rolled Dominican cigar for J.C. Newman.
At that
time, J.C. Newman and Arturo Fuente, agreed that the manufacture of the cigars
would be distributed among them: Newman would manufacture the machine-rolled
cigars, while Fuente would manufacture the artisanal cigars. Since then, this
business alliance, which began in Tampa, is the most successful premium cigar
manufacturing and distribution combination in the world.
