appears to have a close connection with its subject . it may require cleanup to comply with wikipedia s content policies particularly neutral point of view . please discuss further on the talk page . january 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message thompson cigar america s oldest mail order cigar company type private industry retail founded 1915 headquarters 5401 hangar court . tampa fl 33634 number of locations 1 products cigars & cigar accessories owners robert franzblau charles franzblau alix franzblau number of employees 225 parent thompson and company of tampa inc. website http www.thompsoncigar.com thompson cigar company is a cigar and cigar accessories retailer located in tampa florida . thompson cigar is the oldest mail order cigar company in the united states . 1 originally located in key west florida thompson cigar first opened in 1915 . in 1920 after hurricanes decimate most of the cigar factories in key west original owner m.a. thompson moved his factory to ybor city located in tampa florida known as cigar capital of the world . thompson acquired postal permit 1 in the city of tampa which it still holds today . in 1934 m.a. thompson moved his factory to bartow florida where it would remain until 1960 . 2 thompson cigar s factory located in florida contents 1 incorporation and growth 2 initiatives 3 operating divisions 4 customer base 5 thompson cigar outlet store 6 thompson retail websites 7 governance 8 see also 9 references incorporation and growth edit in 1960 thompson cigar company was sold to robert franzblau . franzblau relocated cigar production to local tampa factories such as m & n cigars and gradiaz annis which would make cigars under the thompson brand . both stanford newman and morton annis would serve as franzblau s mentors for many years . newman bought cuesta rey and annis owned gold label and macanudo which he eventually sold to general cigar company . expansion led franzblau to permanently establish corporate headquarters at 5401 hangar court tampa florida 33634 . today thompson cigar runs the single largest inventory storage humidor in the united states totaling over 300 000 cubic feet 8 500 m3 . 2 thompson cigar distributes private label cigars national cigar brands boutique cigars humidors and smoking accessories . 3 initiatives edit in 2008 thompson cigar became a sponsor for cigars & guitars the tampa history museum thanks troops golf tournament southeastern guides dogs & paws for patriots . also in 2008 thompson cigar announced the donation of over 300 000 cigars to american troops . 1 troops who received cigars included those in combat areas of afghanistan and iraq plus korea the horn of africa and three navy aircraft carrier battle groups . 4 as of january 2015 thompson cigar had donated over a million cigars to american troops . operating divisions edit thompson cigar was affiliated with thompson group inc. which was listed 73 on the 2004 catalog age top 100 list . 5 thompson group was a multi channel merchant that included thompson cigar caf belmondo sold 2008 casual living usa sold 2010 and linen source sold 2010 . 6 the company does business in three different catalog and online formats tobacco general merchandise and membership cigar club . customer base edit thompson cigar has over 600 000 active customers nationwide . on average 167 800 people visit its website monthly . thompson cigar caters to a 69 % more affluent male demographic . 7 thompson cigar outlet store edit thompson cigar runs and operates one outlet store located in tampa florida . located at the company s headquarters the cigar outlet is open to the public six days a week . thompson retail websites edit thompson & company of tampa inc. owns and operates two retail websites thompsoncigar.com and one auction site thompsoncigarauctions.com . thompsoncigar.com is the premiere site that was launched in 1999 . thompsoncigar.com supports the thompson cigar mail order catalog established in 1915 and the oldest mail order cigar company . thompsoncigar.com offers thousands of cigars from the world s most popular manufacturers . governance edit thompson and company of tampa is governed privately by owners robert franzblau alix franzblau and charles franzblau . upper management includes steve cobden chief marketing officer and colm conway chief financial officer . see also edit famous smoke shop jr cigars references edit a b thompson cigar announces donation of over 300 000 cigars to american troops . published by forbes.com on may 21 2008 . accessed on june 3 2008 . a b the thompson group . employee handbook . brochure . tampa author 2006 . published by thompson & co. of tampa inc on may 18 2006 . accessed on june 2 2009 . cite error invalid ref tag ; name employee handbook defined multiple times with different content see the help page . 1 dead link support our troops our troops online send items to u.s. troops stationed overseas help with postage costs always needed title . our troops online . 2004 09 11 . retrieved 2012 11 27 . 2004 catalog age 100 pdf . multichannelmerchant.com . retrieved 2012 11 27 . 2 archived october 7 2011 at the wayback machine . thompsoncigar.com traffic and demographic statistics by quantcast . quantcast.com . 2012 11 23 . retrieved 2012 11 27 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title thompson cigar & oldid 740071487 categories companies based in tampa floridacigar retailershidden categories pages with reference errorspages with duplicate reference namesall articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from november 2012articles with wayback machine linkswikipedia articles with possible conflicts of interest from january 2015pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 18 september 2016 at 22 05 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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