Hav-a-Tampa cigars closing Tampa plant (Obamanomics and regulation kills 500 more jobs)

TBO ^ | 6/24/09 | staff

[pissant]

TAMPA - Tampa will lose part of its cigar heritage in August when Hav-A-Tampa shuts its factory near Seffner and lays off about 495 employees, closing a factory that has been operating since 1902.

The company announced the closing today.

Many employees there make Hav-A-Tampa's iconic Jewels, inexpensive machine-made cigars known for their birchwood tips. Some workers have labored there for two decades or longer, including one who's been there for 50 years, said Richard McKenzie, a senior vice president of human resources for Altadis USA, which owns Hav-A-Tampa.

Altadis tried to keep the plant open by closing it for a week or two at a time and furloughing workers. Eventually, though, the company couldn't cope with a steep drop in consumer demand, brought on by the recession and a large new tax on tobacco products, McKenzie said.

Work that had been done in Tampa will now be performed in an Altadis plant in Puerto Rico, where it has extra manufacturing capacity, McKenzie said. The company is not closing its nearby distribution center off U.S. 301, where it employs about 150 people.

[pissant]

Way to fire up the economy

[tiredoflaundry]

Fl/Tampa Ping

[Sacajaweau]

Don’t worry....Obama’s got a connection in Cuba!!

[Oldexpat]

Yeah, next he will side with Cuba in the trademark issue with the old Cuban brands.

[noblejones]

500 more jobs “saved.”

[tatsinfla]

sorry to here this news as the company i work for does alot of altadis high end packaging for their product out of tampa...yet another one down that is affecting us...

[mbynack]

Way to fire up the economy

You're so negative. According to the Whitehouse press release, this policy had the potential to eliminate 5000 jobs, but it only eliminated 500. That means Obama just created 4500 new jobs. Oh happy day! We can now add the 4500 new jobs per day to the budget projections for the next 10 years and we're another step close to balancing the budget.

[GreyFriar]

Obama stimulus and tax package at work.

[Daffynition]

Butt ...butt ... soon we'll be creating jobs for the Cubans.........

[Daffynition]

Pissant, by no means do I want to hi-jack your thread, but I came across this story from NH and the Union Leader this morning, and didn't think it deserved its own thread.

GreyFriar's comment brought it to mind:

Ax the plaques: Gregg's got a good idea

Sen. Judd Gregg wants Congress to prohibit the use of federal stimulus money for signs promoting the federal stimulus bill. As is so often the case, this idea makes so much sense that there's probably no way it can get through Congress.

By now, you've probably seen the stimulus bill's taxpayer-funded advertisements for itself. They are placed before highway construction sites, and they read, "Project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."

According to some news reports, the signs cost about $300 each. But the Boston Herald has reported that in Massachusetts they have cost taxpayers $2,700 each to create and install.

With at least 35 stimulus-funded road projects in New Hampshire and two signs per project, those signs have cost at least $21,000 in New Hampshire alone. If our costs are the same as Massachusetts', then the price tag is closer to $1.6 million.

And for what? So the people will think President Obama's stimulus spending is accomplishing something, when the evidence suggests it is actually doing very little.

These political signs should not be funded with tax dollars. If Obama wants to advertise his stimulus bill, let him pay for the signs out of his campaign funds.

[DesertRhino]

Im not a cigar guy really. Anyone know how much of the problem was drop in demand as premium stuff becomes the norm? As in Budweiser and Miller -vs- microbrews?

Seems like a lot of old standards are out of vogue. Sad.
Remember when we took cigar boxes to school for our pencils?

[Joe Brower]

Maybe the folks at Hav-A-Tampa got tired of having cameras tracking their every step in Ybor City.

Florida Freeper

[danamco]

http://americangrandjury.org/

Here is a remedy???

[Tijeras_Slim]

ping (sort of...)

[martin_fierro]

	FReeper Cigar Aficionado
"Never mess with a man willing to suck on a raging trash fire." -- Tijeras_Slim Send FReepmail if you want on/off FCAP list
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[razorback-bert]

What this country needs is a good nickel cigar.

[devane617]

The congress critter from there, I foget her name, has killed the cigar industry in Tampa Cigar Dave rails on her every weekend on his show.

[BlueNgold]

Hav-a-Tampa Jewels, Black Gold, are my go-to cigar for golf and poker...
Grrrrrrrrrr

[Sunshine Sister]

Gee I wonder how long it will take the powers that be to see their income tax collections go down, sales tax revenue go down and the like?

Were I live the City received 400,000K less the first 6 months of this year than last year. Imagine the hand wringing going on in city hall.

[jeffc]

I'm not a fan of cut-leaf cigars, but I'll smoke a La Gloria Cubana and say a prayer for the out-of-work workers tonight (whilst drinking a Sam Adams Summer Ale - now that's a beer!).