Word: riggio
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When tall, young (35), Latin-looking Frank Riggio quit American Tobacco Co. in 1937 to go in business for himself, cigaretmen thought he was crazy. His father, Vincent Riggio, was a vice president of American Tobacco, a favored member of its famous bonus system. And Frank had only $2,500 to back his own idea, which was to make the first popular blended King-size cigaret. By last week this had proved the best new idea in the tobacco business since the 10? brands. But its chief beneficiary was not Frank Riggio. It was American Tobacco...
...King-size cigaret (85 mm. instead of 70) was nothing new. For over 60 years, "longs" of a wholly Turkish blend had been sold, but mostly to tired old women, Booth Tarkington and Erich von Stroheim. Frank Riggio figured that by putting an American blend in the 85 mm.s he could broaden their market. The 20% extra length would give a cooler, longer smoke; the 11% extra tobacco required would hike the manufacturing cost only 35? a thousand (from around $5)-not enough to throw them out of price competition* with the popular brands. Young Mr. Riggio figured right...
...Papa Riggio's boss, American Tobacco's fabulous President George Washington Hill, smiled too. Ever since the famed Cremo anti-spit campaign had failed to turn the ebbing tide of the cigar business, his cigarmaking subsidiary, American Cigarette and Cigar Co., had been a headache. The Pall Mall cigaret, which A. C. & C. had put out in a 15? Americanized version in 1936, fizzled despite a costly advertising campaign. So Hill borrowed Frank Rig gio's idea. He lengthened Pall Mall to King size, kept Young & Rubicam, whom he had hired in 1938, to do the advertising...
Whether Frank Riggio's idea, Y. & R.'s ads or George Hill's inspired hunch-playing was responsible, Pall Mall had struck a bonanza. It sold 4,000,000,000 cigarets in 1940, seven times its former volume. Last week Profit-Maker Hill, pleased as spiked punch, translated this into dollars for his stockholders. To American Tobacco's 1940 net of $28,311,783 (up 7% over 1939), American Cigarette and Cigar had contributed $1,458,107 (up 276% over 1939). The subsidiary's Pall Mall division had changed a $780,902 loss...
Upstart Frank Riggio, with a new plant in Brooklyn and $175,000 in machinery, sold 800,000,000 Regents, a 300% increase over 1939 and enough (even with Regents' high-cost cardboard box) to net him a profit. But George Hill was by now far ahead. His two entries, Tareyton and Pall Mall, blanketed 70% of the new market...