With the closing of Hav-A-Tampa Cigar Company, another chapter in our city's cigar history comes to a close. J.C. Newman, makers of Cuesta-Rey Cigars among other brands, becomes the last remaining Tampa cigar company to produce cigars here. Founded in 1902, the company that asked, “Won't you Hav-A-Tampa cigar?” did more than perhaps any other company to link Tampa with cigars. “Tampa Jewels”, first marketed in 1931, were sent to U.S. military bases around the world during World War II. Makers of “Tampa Jewels”, “Tampa Sweets” and, later, “Philly Blunts”, Hav-A-Tampa became the second-largest cigar company in the United States. By 1996, Hav-A-Tampa sold nearly 859 million cigars annually with sales of about $140 million and 800 employees in Tampa and Selma, Alabama. The closing of Hav-A-Tampa's operations is a symbolic blow to the local industry and the reasons for it are varied. Taxes are certainly a concern. But other factors are perhaps of equal consequence. Local ownership ended in 1997 with the sale of the company to a Spanish corporation. Since then, Hav-A-Tampa has been bought and sold several times by ever-larger international players. Imperial Tobacco, an English company that distributes the Cohiba and Montecristo brands, recently purchased Altadis USA, which owns the 106-year-old Hav-A-Tampa name.
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