The Dutch Cigar Manufacturers Association

The Dutch Cigar Manufacturers Association (NVS) represents the interests of the manufacturers, working within the Dutch cigar industry. The association is formed by four, well-known, manufacturers of cigars. Together, these four manufacturers share over 90% of the Dutch market and almost 100% of the Dutch exports of cigars.

The members of the NVS, and their most important brands, are:

- Royal Agio Cigars :

Mehari's, Panter, Balmoral and De Huifkar

- Scandinavian Tobacco Group :

Café Crème, Colts, Henri Wintermans, Nobel Petit and Schimmelpenninck

- Ritmeester Cigars :

Ritmeester, Al Capone and Dannemann

- Swedish Match Cigars :

La Paz, Willem II, Justus van Maurik, De Heeren van Ruysdael, Oud Kampen and Hajenius

Employment

Every year, the members of the NVS report upon the staffing of their Dutch and Belgium subsidiaries. The following table gives an overview of the total staffing in these countries over the years 2005 - 2007.

Table 1. Total staffing in the Netherlands and Belgium.

	2005	2006	2007
The Netherlands Belgium	677 881	643 919	573 1.051

Source: NVS

The increased employment in Belgium is mainly due to the takeovers of the Belgian cigar manufacturers Bogaert Cigars and Tabacofina VanderElst by Swedish Match and Henri Wintermans Cigars respectively. Worldwide the members of the association employ more than 6,800 people, most of them in countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic.