Cigarfactory ‘de Olifant’

The cigarfactory is the only factory that the city Kampen still has. For a long time it served as a museum, but with the help of traditional machines (the oldest dates back to 1888) and a team of skilled people, de Olifant ‘rolls’ its daily production. Some pre-war machines have been modernized and are in use since 2009.

History of the cigarfactory ‘de Olifant’

The tobacco industry became a determing factor in 1815 in the city of Kampen. Almost half of the citizens worked in the industry around 1880. 1.5 million cigars were produced every week. It was difficult for the tobacco industry to find a place to build a factory because of leased land. Many cigars were therefore made at home by workers. The tobacco industry disappeared in Kampen after the ban on home-made cigars, the economic crisis in the thirties and the rise of the cigarette. The cigar factory de Olifant is a surviving company from this time where cigars are made in the traditional way.

About the cigarfactory ‘de Olifant’

In the factory you will find a maze of work and storage rooms, which still look like in the late Middle Ages. The sloping walls, the old floors and ceilings are permeated with the smell of tobacco and wood. Cigars have again been produced using traditional machines since the 80s of the last century. Walking through the museum you can visit all rooms and experience the production of a cigar. The cigars are still delivered with the utmost care and quality to this day. The employees therefore work on a number of different models in limited editions.