Eric Newman

Eric Newman is the president and third-generation owner of the J.C. Newman Cigar Company, established in 1895 and the oldest family-owned premium cigar maker in the United States. A grandson of company founder Julius Caeser Newman, he leads the Tampa, Florida firm alongside his brother Bobby Newman, executive vice president, and his son Drew Newman, the fourth-generation general counsel.

Newman was inducted into Cigar Aficionado's Cigar Hall of Fame in 2022, joining his father Stanford J. Newman, who was in the inaugural class.

Early career

Born into the cigar industry, Eric Newman joined the family business in 1972, beginning by curing tobacco leaves in the basement of J.C. Newman's historic El Reloj cigar factory in Tampa. He worked his way up over the following decades and became president in 1986.

Saving the family company

By the mid-1980s, fourteen relatives owned shares of the company while the cigar industry was in a prolonged slump. On Valentine's Day 1986, Stanford Newman, together with his sons Eric and Bobby, leveraged their personal assets to buy out the other relatives and take control. Weeks later, fellow Tampa cigar maker Carlos Fuente Sr. proposed a partnership; the two families would go on to form what is now the Arturo Fuente Cigar Company to distribute Fuente cigars in the United States, and to jointly create the luxury Diamond Crown brand.

Brands and expansion

J.C. Newman produces brands including Cuesta-Rey, Diamond Crown, Brick House and El Baton, and its cigars are sold in dozens of countries. Newman relaunched the Brick House brand in 2007 and helped build a large modern factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. The company restored the century-old El Reloj factory, the last of Tampa's historic cigar factories still operating.

Recognition

In 2022, Cigar Aficionado inducted Eric Newman into its Cigar Hall of Fame, citing his deep family roots and encyclopedic knowledge of Tampa cigar history. He and Bobby Newman also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Cigar Journal.