OUR COMPANYpassionate about tobacco for more than 140 years

RITMEESTER has a long tradition as an international manufacturer of cigars and cigarillos. In 1887 Jochem van Schuppen and Marinus van Schuppen founded their own cigar factory in Veenendaal, which in 1915 was renamed into RITMEESTER.

Jochem & Marinus were astute businessmen with an eye for quality and they soon discovered that tobacco was best cultivated in areas below the equator, with very high temperatures, high humidity and preferably on lava soil or fat clay soil. Lava soil is predominantly found in Indonesia, with clay soil common in Brazil, Cuba and the Caribbean.

In 1989 RITMEESTER Cigars became part of the DANNEMANN family and in 2007, after more than a century in Veenendaal, the division headquarters moved to its current location in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Today the offices house the leadership team, Sales & Marketing functions along with a range of other business support groups. To give you a sense of the company’s wider history please read below the original DANNEMANN story.

In 1872 Geraldo Dannemann settled in the small riverside town of São Félix, Bahia, surrounded by the Mata Fina region, even then famed for its exceptional dark fragrant tobaccos. Upon arrival in the town he built his first cigar factory (still in operation today) and began working with the local craftspeople rolling fine cigars.

Geraldo Dannemann understood that to create the finest cigars in the world he required the best tobacco and immediately began collaborating with the local farmers. This partnership continues to this day with over 200 family farms dating back generations supplementing our own 1,000-hectare Santo Antônio farm. A tradition of “seed to smoke“ creation that continues to this day.

In 1890 Geraldo Dannemann was elected Mayor of São Félix and became one of the most important industrialists in the region. A champion for the local community, he created the first town charter and oversaw the social and economic development of the Recôncavo area. His influence is still clearly visible today thanks to the municipal buildings he created and the bridge which spans the Rio Paraguaçu river connecting São Félix to its sister town of Cachoeira.

From these modest beginnings RITMEESTER has grown into an internationally renowned tobacco group, with unique tobacco plantations in the Americas, Asia and with traditional manufacturing plants worldwide. Our cigars and cigarillos are now available in over 60 countries.

We place our consumers at the centre of our business, because smiling smokers who enjoy our tobaccos responsibly allow us to invest in the future - in products, in innovation and especially in our most important asset; our people.

We have a diverse portfolio of brands and products across international markets. Drawing upon our unmatched expertise in tobacco craft, each brand offers our consumers a unique tobacco experience full of flavour, taste and smoking pleasure.

Mother Nature is both our partner and our provider. Sadly, in the last century the rainforests of Brazil have been devastated by commercial logging, scaring the land and destroying the habitats of a wide variety of native animals and insects. It is our responsibility as people and as a company to ensure we protect and rejuvenate the native flora and fauna in the Mata Fina region surrounding our Santo Antônio farm.

In 2001, DANNEMANN set up an ambitious re-forestation programme which to date has planted over 160,000 native trees. When you “adopt-a-tree” we will tend your sapling for five years until it becomes established enough to join the ecosystem and reclaim the land as nature originally intended.

What started in Brasil more than a century ago, has now grown to be a truly international operation. Although our premium hand-rolled cigars are still produced exclusively in the CENTRO DANNEMANN in São Félix, we now have rolling centres worldwide crafting cigars and cigarillos from our own exceptional South American and Asian tobacco crops.

Click on any one of our locations for more information.