Hav-A-Tampa Cigar Factory Closes

The new SCHIP tax and smoking restrictions have claimed one of America’s iconic cigar factories: the Hav-A-Tampa plant on Riga Boulevard, which will close at the end of August.

The Hav-A-Tampa brand, made in Tampa since 1902, will not die, but will move to the Altadis U.S.A. plant in Cayey, Puerto Rico, where several of its other machine-made brands are currently produced, including the popular Phillies line.

"This decision was reached based on many factors and only after a thorough review of our manufacturing operations and the increasingly challenging environment in which we operate," said Janelle Rosenfeld, Altadis U.S.A.’s Vice President for Marketing and Corporate Communications. "The recently introduced State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) increased the Federal Excise Tax on cigars to an unreasonably high rate and has caused a significant reduction in consumption. "In addition many states have increased and/or are in the process of increasing state excise taxes on top of the new Federal Excise Tax rate. These tax increases along with ever-expanding government regulations and increasingly prohibitive smoking restrictions cause reductions in our manufacturing requirements. This forces us to combine production and unfortunately our Hav-a-Tampa facility is not large enough to absorb our total mass market production needs.

The factory closure will eliminate 495 jobs according to Altadis U.S.A. as noted in a report in the Tampa Tribune. A Hav-A-Tampa distribution center in Tampa, with 150 staff, is not slated for closure, however.

According to the Tribune story, "Demand for Hav-A-Tampa cigars has fallen off significantly recently . . . For example, a single Hav-A-Tampa cigar cost about 60 cents before the legislation and now costs about 80 cents in Florida." Rosenfeld added, "Unfortunately, due to decreasing consumption, the once-large production numbers have declined to the current point necessitating the move of production."