OCB Papers

The classics: OCB Papers. One of the most popular cigarette papers in Europe, perhaps even the entire rolling world. It is manufactured in France and is certainly familiar to every roll-your-own smoker - you can't go past No. 4 Blue and Premium Slim.

OCB rolling papers: formats and variants

After years of producing classic short cigarette papers, the turn of the millennium marked the beginning of a period of innovation for the long-established company - new formats such as Rolls or King Size Slim and papers for a wide variety of rolling needs were added to the range. In 1999, the black OCB Premium was launched on the market, which has certainly become the standard for long papers.
In 2004, the Xpert series for advanced turners was added, and from 2009 the Organic variant and other unbleached products made from organically grown materials such as hemp were added. The latest innovation to date is Ultimate, the thinnest and finest OCB papers. All variants are gummed with natural gum arabic.

Turning machines and filters

Starting with paper, OCB has gradually expanded its range to include the whole world of smoking accessories. Twist-in filters and Filter tips are a logical step, as are empty tubes for cigarette tamping - but the tamping machines themselves can also be purchased with the characteristic lettering. The same applies to lathes.
The unmistakable blue of the most popular short leaflets, the No.4, also adorns countless merchandise items such as T-shirts and jumpers.

History of the brand

What do the three magic letters mean? OCB is an acronym that stands for Odet Cascadec Bolloré. The three components of this name are all proper names: Odet is a river that flows through the French town of Quimper and empties into the Atlantic at Bénodet. Here, not far from the source of the river, the first paper mill was founded in 1822 by Nicolas Le Marie and René and Guillaume Bolloré.
In Cascadec there is another mill, which was added in 1893. Today it belongs to the Glatfelter Group and is called Papeteries de Cascadec. And Bolloré, as attentive readers will already have guessed, is the surname of the family that ran the company. To be precise, it was Vincent Bolloré, the grandson of the founder, who reactivated production in Brittany and built up a world-class cigarette paper factory.

After initially producing stationery and other paper products, the factory shifted its focus more and more towards cigarette paper in the early 20th century - the first packets with the characteristic Imprint were sold as early as 1918. Thanks to the high quality, a large proportion of production was soon exported worldwide, as it still is today. In 1987, Vincent Bolloré bought out a strong competitor: the traditional company JOB from Perpignan, which was and still is known for its high-quality wrapping paper.
This was the beginning of Bolloré Technologies, a company that was sold in 2000 to its main American customer Don Levin and has since been run as Republic Technologies. Since 2006, OCB has even been a fully American company based in Chicago, which also owns the Zig-Zag brand - the leaflets are still an expression of French lifestyle, but a globalised economy does not stop at style icons.