Louis Rothman (1869–1926) was the founder of

Rothmans International Rothmans International plc was a British tobacco manufacturer. Its brands included Rothmans, Player's and Dunhill. Its international headquarters were in Hill Street, London and its international operations were run from Denham Place in Denham ...

, one of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

's largest tobacco businesses.

Career

Apprenticed at the age of fourteen to an uncle's tobacco factory near

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, Louis Rothman emigrated to the

with very little money in 1887.Rothmans International at Funding Universe
/ref> He started to earn his living in London as a hand made cigarette maker and then used the money that he had saved to set up his own business selling cigarettes, which he rolled himself. In 1893, he married Jane Weiner and at about the same time opened a small kiosk at 55a Fleet Street (reputed to have been the smallest shop in the City of London) from where he sold the cigarettes he had rolled the previous night. 'Among his customers were the Lords Rothermere and Northcliffe and Sir James Wilcox. The business of this little shop grew until, in a comparatively short time there were six Rothman shops in the city.'Obituary: Tobacco January 1st 1927 p.97 He subsequently opened a number of other shops in the City and in about 1902 rented a half shop in the West End of London (5a Pall Mall). This was marked by the launch of the Pall Mall brand of cigarettes. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

had ended, he had to use the name ''Rothmans of Pall Mall'' to distinguish his business from a shop in Regent Street that had been started by his brother, Marx, and subsequently sold to someone else. In 1912 or 1913, Louis merged his business with that of Markus Weinberg to form the

Yenidje Tobacco Company Limited {{Short description, Former British tobacco company Yenidje Tobacco Company Limited was a British tobacco company founded in 1913 by Louis Rothman and Markus Weinberg. The company was named for the town of Yenidje, Thrace (modern Genisea, Greece), a ...

. As a result of a disagreement between the two owners, the arrangement was dissolved in 1916. In 1919, Louis went into partnership with his son, Sydney. In 1922, they started to sell cigarettes by mail order through the Rothman's Direct-to-Smoker service. Overseas demand also expanded and taking advantage of incentives from the UK Government to promote the importing of tobacco from

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

countries, they expanded the business into an international concern. A lifelong smoker, Louis Rothman died in 1926 of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rothman, Louis 1869 births 1926 deaths English Jews Ukrainian-Jewish emigrants to the United Kingdom Tobacco in the United Kingdom Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom British company founders