The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The cigar factory

unfit for tobacco factory work, but who had given a full ten years of their lives to the tobacco industry previous to their illness. There must have been a considerable number of factory workers who claimed their pensions in this way. Among the factory women certain illnesses were rife: anaemia, chronic and acute rheumatism, conjunctivitis, tuberculosis and all manner of lung disorders - many of these caused, of course, by the working conditions in the factory.

Let us take a break in the story at this point, leave the Eger factory ticking over, developing quietly and solidly under the patronage of the Hungarian Crown, and turn our attention to a certain Mr. Philip Morris. What had happened to him and his tobacco business over the intervening 50 years? His tobacconist’s was flourishing nicely, and in 1854 he decided that the time was ripe for him to try his hand at manufacture. His products were not particularly distinguishable from all the others on the market; they blended in nicely and sold well. In 1870 Philip Morris altered his marketing strategy, and launched his Cambridge and Oxford Blues brands. He died in 1873 without ever seeing his buisness really boom. His widow and brother Leopold continued to run his cigarette business, later on Leopold ran it alone, and later still, for a period of two years, in conjunction with his partner Joseph Grunbaum. The partnership came unstuck quite quickly, and Leopold Morris’ company continued to trade under the name of Philip Morris & Co. Ltd. In 1894 William Curtis Thompson and his family bought majority shares in the business. In 1901 the company became official supplier to the court of King Edward VII, which was a great honour and perhaps the best advertisment they ever had - after all, who sets trends and fashions better than a king? One year later Gustav Ecker- mayer, who had been the exclusive distributor of the company’s products in the New World since 1872,

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