Elita is a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n brand of cigarettes that was produced between 1967 and 2009 by the Latvian company ''"Rīgas Tabakas Fabrika"'' and later by

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products including electronic cigarettes. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, E ...

. According to the data submitted by the Latvian State Revenue Service, Elita was the most sold brand of filtered cigarettes in Latvia for about twenty years.

History

Elita cigarettes were launched in 1967. The cigarettes were mostly distributed in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation of the Bal ...

and Lithuanian SSR. Elita used an American blend of tobacco in their cigarettes. During the Soviet period, the cigarettes were produced in soft packs, but after the restoration of independence of Latvia, packs were produced in hard packages with twenty cigarettes in each pack, and were distributed in cartons consisting of ten packs. There were more than twenty kinds Elitas produced between 1967 and 2009 belonging to the types KS-20-S and KS-20-H. The Trademark for Elita was owned by British American Tobacco. In 2004, the Elita Light branch brand was discontinued due to restrictions introduced by European Union's directive 2001/37/EU. The packages were modernized with an increased health warning area and changes to inscriptions were made to “Smoking kills” or any other of thirteen variants on the choice of the vendor. An inscription with a volume of tar, nicotine and CO was also added. The package also depicted a barcode and black Der Grüne Punkt. The brand was mainly sold in the

Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation and annexation of Latvia began between J ...

and

, but was also sold in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

and

Production

The original production of Elita cigarettes were produced in Rīga,

at a factory located at Miera st. 58. The factory was owned by the state company ''"Rīgas Tabakas Fabrika"'', which was founded in 1887. The capacity of the factory was 5.6 billion cigarettes per year. In 1992 Rīgas Tabakas Fabrika was sold to the Latvian-Denmark company House of Prince Latvia. In 1997, the volume of production of Elita was about 24 million packs. Also in 1997, a new variant of the cigarettes was introduced: “Elita Plus”. Starting in 2002, Elita were produced on a new production line using king size (84 mm) tubes. Production at Rīga factory was stopped in 2009 due to a 30% drop in sales and increase of illegal sales.

References

{{British American Tobacco 1967 establishments in the Soviet Union 2009 disestablishments in Latvia British American Tobacco brands mk:Елита (цигара)

History

Production

See also

References