FDA rules could kill 119-year-old family cigar business

J.C. Newman Cigar Co. is one of a kind, literally.

Founded in 1895 by Julius Caesar Newman, a Hungarian immigrant, the Tampa-based family business is the last of what was once 150 “Cigar City” factories.

The business has outlasted 19 U.S. presidents, two world wars, a Cuban economic embargo that crushed many of its competitors and, most recently, the Great Recession.

Now, the company is fighting for its life.

A new executive branch regulation aimed at curbing youth access to tobacco by stomping out affordable cigars effectively would extinguish the Newman family legacy, and its 130 jobs.

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