Rates of cigarette smoking may be declining but one of Huddersfield’s oldest shops is reporting a rise in interest in pipe smoking and posh cigars.
C Booth & Son, which has been based on Cross Church Street for 152 years, is known as ‘the shop that sells everything’ - and that includes cigars from central America and Cuba.
On Friday, as new tobacco ‘plain packaging’ regulations came into force, the store was doing a brisk trade in lighters, hand-rolling tobacco and cigars.
Owner Simon Green said consumers and retailers had had plenty of time to get used to the new regulations, which include a ban on flavoured hand-rolling tobacco.
Mr Green said the shop had been broadening its range of tobacco products to meet demand, although it does not sell cigarettes or electronic cigarettes.
“We have had a growth in sales but that’s down to the fact that we have expanded our ranges,” he said.
About five years ago he built a humidor - a room with constant humidity used to store the cigars and tobacco in tip-top condition.
And he revealed that younger people were coming in to buy cigars and even pipes.
Some of the purchases may be as a result of experimentation - or to celebrate graduation days, weddings and stag dos, he added.