Elita (cigarette)

Not to be confused with Elica.

Elita

File:Elita American Blend (Full Flavour).jpg An old Latvian pack of Elita, with a Latvian text warning at the bottom of the pack
Product type	Cigarette
Produced by	British American Tobacco
Country	Latvia
Introduced	1967 (1967)
Discontinued	2009
Markets	Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Latvia, Italy, Lithuania, Russia
Previous owners	"Rīgas Tabakas Fabrika"
Carcinogenicity: IARC group 1

Elita is a Latvian brand of cigarettes that was produced between 1967 and 2009 by the Latvian company "Rīgas Tabakas Fabrika" and later by British American TobaccoTemplate:Fix/category.

History

Elita cigarettes were launched in 1967Template:Fix/category. The cigarettes were mostly distributed in Russia, Latvian SSR and Lithuanian SSRTemplate:Fix/category. Elita used an American blend of tobacco in their cigarettesTemplate:Fix/category. 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 packsTemplate:Fix/category. 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/EUTemplate:Fix/category. 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 vendorTemplate:Fix/category. An inscription with a volume of tar, nicotine and CO was also addedTemplate:Fix/category. The package also depicted a barcode and black Der Grüne Punkt.

The brand was mainly sold in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and Latvia, but was also sold in Italy, Lithuania and Russia.

Production

The original production of Elita cigarettes were produced in Rīga, Latvia at a factory located at Miera st. 58Template:Fix/category. The factory was owned by the state company "Rīgas Tabakas Fabrika", which was founded in 1887Template:Fix/category. The capacity of the factory was 5.6 billion cigarettes per yearTemplate:Fix/category. In 1992 Rīgas Tabakas Fabrika was sold to the Latvian-Denmark company House of Prince LatviaTemplate:Fix/category. In 1997, the volume of production of Elita was about 24 million packsTemplate:Fix/category. 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) tubesTemplate:Fix/category. Production at Rīga factory was stopped in 2009 due to a 30% drop in sales and increase of illegal salesTemplate:Fix/category.

File:Elita Full Flavour (Old Soviet Union pack).jpg

An old Latvian pack of Elita Full Flavour cigarettes. Note the USSR (or CCCP) on the bottom of the pack.

Advertisement

Elita was not actively advertised in mass media, with TV advertisement only occurring onceTemplate:Fix/category. The factory made a special edition of Elita for the users of Latvian National Film Festival in 2005Template:Fix/category, and then followed by issuing different types of the packages with the depictions of the famous Latvian castles and palacesTemplate:Fix/category. The packages were printed with some of the following landmarks:

• Cesvaine Palace
• Jaunpils Castle
• Rundāle Palace
• Turaida Castle
• Bridge through Venta in Kuldīga

A special package dedicated to the 40 years of independent Latvia was also issuedTemplate:Fix/category.

Products

Variety	Year	Tar	Nicotine	CO
Elita (white)	1967	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita (black)	1967	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita black with a GOST	1967	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita	1992	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Gold	1992	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita De luxe	1992	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Full Flavour	2001	12.00	0.9	n/a
Elita Lights	2001	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Lights Menthol	2001	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Light	1992	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Light De luxe	1992	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Light Menthol	1992	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Plus Lights	2003	9.0	0.8	n/a
Elita Plus Super Lights	2003	5.0	0.4	n/a
Elita Plus Super Lights	2004	6.0	0.5	n/a
Elita Plus Full Flavour	2002	11.0	0.8	n/a
Elita Plus Full Flavour	2003	12.0	1.0	n/a
Elita Plus Blue	2004	8.0	0.7	n/a
Elita Plus Menthol	2004	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Plus Silver	2004	5.0	0.5	n/a
Elita Plus Classic	2004	10.0	0.8	n/a
Elita Flor Exclusive Tobacco	2004	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Gold	2004	8.0	0.6	9.0
Elita Original	2004	10.0	0.8	n/a
Elita Gold Special edition	2007	n/a	n/a	n/a
Elita Original Special edition	2007	n/a	n/a	n/a

Market share, price and volume

According to the data submitted by the Latvian State Revenue Service, Elita was the most sold brand of the cigarette with a filter in Latvia for the period of about twenty years, mostly because of an affordable price. Among the other most popular cigarettes were Wall Street and Winston. Market share of Elita is shown in the following table:

Year	Percent	Volume (pack)	Price	Currency
1967	n/a	n/a	0.30	SUR
1980	n/a	n/a	0.30	SUR
1997	~20	n/a	0.30	LVL
2002	14.39	27 460 000
2004	16.0	n/a	0.31	LVL
2005	26.9	103 000 000	n/a	LVL
2007	16.0	n/a	0.38/0.55 (SE)	LVL
2008	n/a	n/a	0.95	LVL
2009	n/a	n/a	1.35	LVL

See also

• Tobacco smoking
• Drina (cigarette)
• Filter 57 (cigarette)
• Jadran (cigarette)
• Laika (cigarette)
• Lovćen (cigarette)
• Morava (cigarette)
• Partner (cigarette)
• Smart (cigarette)
• Time (cigarette)
• Sobranie
• Jin Ling
• LD (cigarette)
• Walter Wolf (cigarette)