National Cigar - A Family Owned Operation

We have been making cigars in the Midwest since 1943, at our plant here in Frankfort, Indiana. During all of these years, National Cigar has been under the same ownership. The Berger family out of Cincinnati, Ohio has owned and maintained the same philosophy of manufacturing a GREAT CIGAR FOR THE PRICE since we rolled that first cigar in 1943.

Our Chairman Carl G. Berger, Sr. (1912-1998) at John Berger & Son Company in Cincinnati, Ohio oversaw the packing and importing of cigar leaf tobacco. John Berger & Son Company, a tobacco brokerage firm, was established in 1854. Once owning several hundred acres of tobacco in Connecticut, they sold it all off over the years. All that was kept was a tobacco warehouse which eventually became a part of National Cigar Corporation.  This warehouse was also sold late in 2007.

Although we have national distribution, our cigars are more available at retail outlets in the states where our cigars originated from and have spread to. National Cigar began with custom brands in the days when many drug chains in the cigar business had a cigar manufacturer make and package their cigars under private label names.

Through the 60's, we acquired national labels and began the effort to improve the taste and quality of the cigars using our experience, expertise and facilities to supply a very wide range of select choice machine rolled cigars with the finest American tobacco and foreign tobacco available.

In 1950, National Cigar was managed by Spanish born Celestino Vega (1897-1997) up until 1976. Since that time, National Cigar Corporation has been managed by James K. Pogue, its President. Jim was born and raised in Frankfort, Indiana, a community of approximately 15,000 people.

Jim Pogue has been with the company since 1953 and makes several visits a year to National Cigar's South Windsor, Connecticut tobacco facility. Jim, along with Sherwood C. Waldron (1921-2002) Manager of the South Windsor Tobacco Farms warehouse, would go out into the fields during the growing season and inspect the crops of tobacco with the Connecticut farmers.

We purchase our wrapper tobacco from small family farms where it's the main cash crop. They are good farmers who take care of their ground, putting back into the ground each year what they take out. National Cigar knows the tobacco it will be using on our cigars long before it makes its way to our Frankfort, Indiana cigar factory.

Although a lot of emphasis is placed on the wrappers used on cigars, we at National Cigar also recognize the importance of the filler blends which make up more of the flavor than many acknowledge. Every part of the cigar contributes to the over-all flavor.

407 North Main Street
PO Box 97
Frankfort, IN 46041
Phone: 1-800-321-0247
Contact National Cigar by E-mail