Local firm introduces new cigar product

Local firm introduces new cigar product

YOGYAKARTA: In a bid to attract young smokers and
create a bridge between cigarette and cigar smokers,
Yogyakarta provincial government-owned cigar
producer PD Taru Martani introduced a new product,
Cigar van Java, which is a combination of a
cigarette and a cigar.

"We call it a cigarette-cigar -- a cigar, but
with the taste of a cigarette. As far as I know it's the
first of its kind. We are the first to have produced such a
product," PD Tarumartani's director Bimo N Wartono
said prior to the pre-launching ceremony of
the new product held at the factory in Baciro
earlier this week.

Bimo said that young smokers would be the main target
market of the new product, to be officially launched in nine
months. They are those who want to try cigars, but
are put off due to their strong flavor and/or
relatively high price.

PD Taru Martani, which will produce the new product in
cooperation with PT Yogyakarta Tembakau Indonesia and
under the supervision of leading cigarette producer PT
HM Sampoerna, plans to produce some 16,000 Cigar van
Java per month and will sell them at Rp 10,000 each,
in packs of five.

"It is indeed designed as a mass product. Still, it
cannot be as mass as a cigarette product. If you can
maintain production at 10,000 cigars a month, that would be
good," Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X
said at the pre-launching ceremony.

The sultan, who is himself a cigar smoker, was given the
honor of selecting one of the six different
types of cigarette-cigars prepared by the
company for mass production. -- JP