Santa Fe Little Cigars from sustainable tobacco

The Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company was founded in 1982 by three ambitious pioneers based on the idealistic idea of producing Santa Fe Little Cigars based on the Indian models without any additives.

Initially, the small company only had a shed at the old loading station in Santa Fe and sold Santa Fe Little Cigars from sustainable tobacco cultivation there.

In order to do justice to the company philosophy, brown, natural paper was used as packaging, printed with a portrait of an Indian chief sitting by the campfire and smoking a pipe. Due to another investor, the company grew slowly but steadily and was able to gain additional shareholders over the years.

However, the company’s success did not really materialize until the Supervisory Board elected Robin Sommers as CEO in 1989. The sales and marketing expert from Texas campaigned for highly qualified tobacco experts to develop a proprietary tobacco blend that could be put into the Santa Fe Little Cigars production.

The creative department transformed the former packaging with the significant Indian portrait into an independent cigar brand logo. The distribution took place exclusively via direct company channels with the exclusion of the trade. There were no advertising or sponsoring measures. Within a few years, a loyal fan base for Natural American Spirit tobacco was created.

When Michael Wittrock from Hamburg came to Santa Fe in 1996 and discovered the blue cigar packet with the Indian portrait, he was so enthusiastic about it that he wanted to find out more about the producer. At this point he had been marketing cigarettes himself for ten years. His interest in the Santa Fe Little Cigars brand was so great that he bought some stocks and was able to convince the unconventional tobacco manufacturer to export Natural American Spirit cigarettes to Europe.

In 1997 Michael Wittrock and his partners from Santa Fe founded the European headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. From 1998 the cigarette brand was also sold in Germany by a committed 3-man team from a Hamburg office. PR campaigns and many convinced Santa Fe Little Cigars smokers ensured that the cigarette brand made from pure tobacco without additives was in increasing demand.