Swisher celebrated its 100th anniversary in Jacksonville on June 20 with the unveiling of a mural at the entrance to its corporate headquarters at 459 E. 16th St. near Springfield.
The mural by Jacksonville artist Martin Torres depicts the history of the company, which makes tobacco products.
David Swisher founded the company in 1861 in Newark, Ohio, after he received a small cigar business in settlement of a debt. It sold cigars throughout the Midwest, according to the Swisher website.
As the company grew, it sought a new location with port and train access. It relocated to Jacksonville in 1924.
By 1941 the Jacksonville facility was the largest cigar factory in the world.
It introduced Swisher Sweets in 1958. The brand is the best-selling cigar in the world.
The company produces about 2 billion cigars a year.
It acquired Drew Estate Tobacco Co. in Miami in 2014. It serves as Swisher’s premium cigar brand. In addition to cigars, Swisher sells smokeless tobacco and hemp products as well as oral nicotine.
The Jacksonville plant is one of two manufacturing facilities that make cigar binder paper, which is placed between the tobacco leaf and outside wrap.
The campus is about 800,000 square feet.
Former company President Carl S. Swisher was involved in the creation of Jacksonville University. The JU library and gymnasium are named after him.
The company made a $500,000 contribution to the city’s Emerald Trail project, Swisher CEO Neil Kiely said at the unveiling.
A book about Swisher’s history will be published later this year.
Swisher employs about 400 Jacksonville workers and more than 1,000 in the U.S. Kiely praised the local workforce.
“We’ve had a major commitment to this community in a variety of areas over the last 100 years,” he said.
“We are very wedded to this community that has made us successful.”
The plant has employed family members spanning three generations or more, he said. Some even grew up at the factory as Swisher opened the first industrial-based nursery for workers’ children in 1939. It closed in 1962.
“Their parents worked here, the grandparents worked here. And years ago we actually had a nursery here and many of the employees brought their children here for daycare. And we have some of those employees working for us now,” Kiely said.
