Carreras Tobacco Company - Bernhard Baron

Bernhard Baron

In 1881, the first cigarette making machine was patented in the United States by James Bonsack and by 1883 one of the British manufacturers, W. D. & H. O. Wills, had pioneered the use of the Bonsack in England. Wills joined with twelve other companies to form the Imperial Tobacco Group, from which both Rothmans and Carreras chose to remain independent, and by 1901 the Bonsack machine, making 200 cigarettes a minute, was exclusively available only to members of this Group.

However, another of the cigarette machine makers, Bernhard Baron, had returned to London from the United States in 1896 with a patent for a new machine which could make 450 cigarettes a minute, and his progress was watched with interest by Mr Yapp who was by then running the Carreras business but who was keen to make cigarettes a paying venture.

Baron was determined to put his making machine into a small concern such as Carreras. Having been deprived of the opportunity to sell his machines to the newly formed Imperial Tobacco Company, which had a monopoly on the Bonsack machines, the opportunity arose in 1903 for Yapp to negotiate a business arrangement with Baron.

On 6 June 1903, Carreras became a public company with Yapp and Baron as directors and, under the leadership of Bernhard Baron, heralded the beginnings of defiant competition for the now powerful Imperial Tobacco Group and the new American invader, James Buchanan Duke, who was also capturing large slices of the British market with Ogden’s Guinea Gold, the first Virginia cigarette made in this country.

The original Carreras prospectus was heavily criticised in the City press, but within a short time the shares were fully subscribed, particularly by members of the tobacco trade who were quick to realise the potential of the new venture.

The Baron family had a reputation as good employers who treated their staff well. Bernhard Baron would walk amongst his employees daily, enquiring after their families, and his son, Louis, and his grandson, Maurice, also made regular visits to the factory floor. A tradition developed that on Bernhard's birthday, each December, all employees were given two weeks' wages and a cake to take home.