Hamlet gears up as it celebrates 40 years

9th November 2004

Gallaher is this year celebrating 40 years of its highly successful Hamlet brand.

To mark the occasion the company is set for a major marketing and promotional push, with special promotions and packaging.

And as it geared up for the celebrations it invited CigarBuyer to its factory in Cardiff to show just how far the brand had become over the last four decades.

Hamlets are made by J.R.Freeman & Sons for the Gallaher Group and a whopping two million cigars are packed per day.

About 470 million Hamlets are sold a year, and with many smokers smoking less but ‘trading up’ from cigarettes to small cigars, the company is optimistic about the future.

The Cardiff factory is where the complete cigar making process takes place, and it combines state of the art technology with aspects of traditional dry cigar making process.

Mixed tobacco leaves are turned in to rods at the speed of 1800 a minute. The rolled cigars spend one to two days in a conditioning unit where the moisture content is reduced from 18 per cent to 16 per cent.

Finally the cigars are pressed and perforation holes are cut. They are then returned to the conditioning room for further moisture reduction.

The 40th anniversary promotions will take place in both on and off trade in the run up to Christmas with special eye-catching packaging and point of sale material for all types of outlets including cigar bars.

Published in Cigar Buyer Magazine © 2004