OCB is the French rolling paper whose story starts at a Bolloré family paper mill on Brittany's Odet river in 1822. Owned since 2000 by Republic Technologies, the Perpignan-based group controlled by Don Levin's family, it makes booklets and cones from bamboo, organic hemp, brown rice, flax and wood fibers. In the US it sells through Republic Brands, including a line made with Seth Rogen's Houseplant.
Odet, Cascadec, Bolloré
The three letters are a map of the brand's roots. In 1822 brothers René and Guillaume Bolloré built a paper mill beside the Odet river near Ergué-Gabéric in Finistère. The family later bought the Cascadec mill, and in 1918 the OCB name was born from the Odet, Cascadec and Bolloré.
The Bolloré business moved its rolling-paper production to a factory in Perpignan in 1986, the same year it took over JOB, the brand descended from Jean Bardou's 1838 booklet, and became Bolloré Technologies. From there it sold OCB, Zig-Zag and JOB papers.
Republic Technologies and the Levin family
In 2000 the business was acquired by Republic Technologies, the group built by American rolling-paper magnate Don Levin, whose family still owns it. Republic is headquartered in Perpignan and puts its products into more than 105 countries. Its French arm, Republic Technologies France, produces OCB, Zig-Zag and JOB papers.
The scale is serious. When Forbes profiled Levin in 2023 as the billionaire king of rolling papers, it reported that Republic makes more than 1.2 billion booklets a year and controls about a third of the North American rolling-paper market. In the US, OCB is sold under Republic Brands, the Levin-founded company whose portfolio also includes JOB, e-z wider, DRUM, Premier, Gambler and TOP.
A paper for every fiber
OCB builds its range around what the paper is made of, and every line is finished with its own blend of acacia gum.
- Premium: the ultra-thin, almost transparent everyday paper, made from wood fibers from managed forests
- Organic Hemp: hemp organically grown in Champagne, France
- Brown Rice: made with real rice from the Camargue, OCB's answer to so-called rice papers that contain no rice
- Bamboo: 100% bamboo, built for a smooth, slow burn
- X-Pert: a relaxed weave for easier airflow, including the extra-wide, extra-long X-Pert XXL made for donut rolls
- Sophistiqué and Solaire: 100% flax at 13.5 g/m² and 100% wood at 14 g/m²
- Unbleached and Ultimate: rounding out the booklet range
Most lines come in 1¼ and Slim, with or without tips. Cones come in mini, 1¼ and King sizes and in 50- and 100-count Cone Towers, backed by a Cone Loader kit, grinders, rollers, tips and trays.
How a booklet gets made
OCB makes its own paper. Fiber bundles are broken up in a pulper, the slurry runs onto a moving wire mesh where the water drains away, and the wet mat is pressed between rollers and dried. The OCB logo and the brand's lighthouse pattern are engraved into the sheet under pressure, a machine lays down the acacia gum line, and the paper is cut into small bobbins.
The interleaving machine then unrolls 50 bobbins at once to build a 50-leaf booklet before the cover flaps are folded. Every booklet carries a code that traces the date, the machine and the team that made it, and an in-house lab tests production throughout.
Perpignan, Lac Léman and the sourcing map
OCB calls its Perpignan facility carbon neutral, running on hydropower, wind, solar and biomass, and the plant holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certification. OCB says the water it uses goes back into Lac Léman 70% cleaner than regulations require.
The brand aims to source within 500 kilometres of its facilities. Hemp comes from a co-op of French farmers, rice from the Camargue delta and wood pulp from sustainably managed forests under a track-and-trace process, while the acacia gum is harvested in Africa's Sahel region. Unusable paper goes back to the mill for recycling, packs are printed with vegetable ink and the cardboard is recycled.
Houseplant by OCB
In January 2024, OCB and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's Houseplant announced a co-branded line of papers and cones, sold online from February 16, 2024 and in US and Canadian stores that spring. It comes in Bamboo, Brown Rice and Classic, in 1¼ papers with or without tips plus mini and 1¼ cones in Bamboo and Classic, all made in France at 14 g/m² with acacia gum.
Rogen said at launch that he and Goldberg were blown away by OCB's process and happy to have found a partner that cares. The line carries the tagline The Greatest Rolling Papers on Earth.
7,000 joints at Hall of Flowers
OCB took its show to Hall of Flowers at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. At 4:20 p.m. on September 21, 2024, the brand set what it billed as a world record for the most joints lit at one time, with 7,000 sparked together at a festival that drew more than 13,000 attendees and 300 vendors.
OCB ranks No. 3 in Top 5 Best Rolling Paper Brands, cast as the European standard for technical rollers and a practical choice for pre-roll production at scale, where every paper in a run has to behave the same.