Perdomo is a brand of

cigars A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder le ...

primarily grown and produced in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

and sold worldwide by Tabacalera Perdomo. Manufactured by Perdomo Cigars, the company is a family owned and operated business headquartered in

Miami Lakes, Florida Miami Lakes is a suburb of Miami, an incorporated town and former census-designated place in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. US Census, 31,628 people live in Miami Lakes. History The development was constructed by Sengra (now the ...

and headed by CEO Nick Perdomo, Jr.

Company history

Forerunners

Tabacalera Perdomo traces its roots to the town of San Jose de las Lajas, Cuba, about 17 miles (27 km.) southeast of

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, where company founder Silvio Perdomo was raised."History,"
perdomocigars.net/ Retrieved September 14, 2010. Perdomo went into the

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...

industry as a young man, serving his apprenticeship for

Cuesta y Cia A cuesta (from Spanish ''cuesta'' "slope") is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. In geology the term is more specifically applied to a ridge where a harder sedimentary rock overlies a softer layer ...

in the early 1930s. Silvio left that company's employ in 1937 to go to work for

H. Upmann H. Upmann is a Cuban brand of premium cigars established by banker Hermann Dietrich Upmann (who also founded the H. Upmann & Co. bank on the island). The brand is currently owned by a British corporation, Imperial Brands. The cigars are manuf ...

, where he remained until 1945. In 1945, Silvio Perdomo left H. Upmann to go to work in a managerial position at Partagas, where he stayed until 1959. Silvio Perdomo's son, Nicholas Perdomo Sr. (Nick Senior), soon followed his father into the cigar making trade, beginning his apprenticeship in 1948 for Marin & Trujillo. Following the completion of his apprenticeship, Nick Senior joined his father as an executive at Partagas. He later began work as a top executive at the H. Upmann factory, the largest cigar manufacturing facility in Cuba. Following the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

of 1959, Silvio Perdomo was arrested by revolutionaries and imprisoned at the Isla de los Pinos prison, where he was held for three years. He was then transferred to captivity at the La Cabana fortress overlooking Habana Bay. He spent the next 12 years in prison at La Cabana and four other facilities as an enemy of the revolution of

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

. Silvio emigrated to the United States in 1974. Nick Senior was also targeted by revolutionaries. He later recalled "The political views of my family and I were very

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

, and President Fulgencio Batista used to visit the factories frequently. Batista didn't smoke cigars but, because it's one of Cuba's main exports, he was very interested in what my father and I were doing with the different cigar shapes and styles we were experimenting with." Nick Senior fought as a guerrilla against the communist forces during the revolution. He was shot twice in a firefight and later removed from the hospital on a gurney to escape

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...

. After recovering through the aid of a friend, Nick Senior emigrated to the United States via the

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

an Embassy with the help of a sponsorship from the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. His connection with the cigar manufacturing industry severed, Nick Senior settled near

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

and resumed his life as an immigrant working as a janitor in a mental institution for $11 per week.

Establishment

In 1976, Nick Perdomo Sr. and his family, including son Nicholas Perdomo Jr. (Nick Junior), moved from the city in which they had lived,

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, to

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

to be closer to relatives."Biography: Nick Perdomo, Jr.,"
perdomocigars.com/ Retrieved September 14, 2010. Nick Junior attended Hialeah High School before joining the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

, in which he served as an

air traffic controller Air traffic control specialists, abbreviated ATCS, are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. Usually stationed in air traffic control centers and control ...

. Following completion of his military stint, Nick Junior gained employment in the same field at

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most co ...

. Nick Junior felt the urge to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as a cigarmaker, despite his industry inexperience.David Savona
"The World According to Perdomo,"
''Cigar Aficionado,'' December 2001. In August 1992 he started a business based out of his garage, marking the beginning of today's Tobacalera Perdomo. The company in Miami was named "Nick's Cigar Co." Nick Junior initially retained his well paying job as an air traffic controller and worked at his startup cigar brand in the evenings. In its initial phase, the company employed three rollers, with Nick Junior and his wife Janine working as packers. Nick Junior sought to reject the prevailing trend in the cigar industry, which was skewing towards mild cigars. He instead focused on making a product using wrappers from

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

and

fillers In processed animal foods, a filler is an ingredient added to provide dietary fiber, bulk or some other non-nutritive purpose. Products like corncobs, feathers, soy, cottonseed hulls, peanut hulls, citrus pulp, screening, weeds, straw, and cere ...

from Central America, thus changing the flavor of the cigars. This decision proved to be a wise choice, as the flood of new cigar smokers in the 1990's developed tastes for spicier products. In his first year, "Nick's Cigars" produced and sold just 9,400 cigars, but the business expanded rapidly. By 1997 he had reached the limits of production at his small Miami facility and a move was necessitated to

Ybor City Ybor City ( ) is a historic neighborhood just northeast of downtown Tampa, downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez-Ybor and other cigar manufacturers and populated by thousands of immigrants, mainly ...

, near

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

, a historic area for American cigarmaking. This facility proved unsatisfactory, however, due to the prohibitively high cost of production in the United States. Perdomo also expanded production abroad during the

cigar boom The Cigar boom is the name given to the resurgence of cigar consumption in the United States during the mid-1990s. Beginning in 1992, imports and sales of premium cigars began to rise dramatically and manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand, ...

of the 1990s, with Nick Senior coming out of retirement in 1997 to help open a production facility in Estelí, Nicaragua. The company sold 1 million cigars in that year. This facility proved to not have a large enough capacity to keep up and was replaced with a custom-built facility in the same city in 1999.

Development

Perdomo introduced the Perdomo² ("Perdomo squared") in the 1990s during the cigar boom, one of the first

box-pressed Box-pressed (or ''square-pressed'') cigars are usually packed in two layers in a wide flat cigar box that has an attached flip or hinged lid, and is usually made of paper-covered wood or cardboard (as opposed to a plain-wood cabinet). The sides of ...

cigars of the period. In April 1999, Perdomo was approached by Cano A. Ozgener, head of C.A.O. International, with a proposition to produce its C.A.O. L'Anniversaire line, patterned after the legendary Partagas Serie D No. 4. Ozgener was in the process of losing his manufacturing plant, Tabacalera Tambor in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

, manufacturer of the Bahia brand and was in need of a new partner to keep his product in production and Perdomo was chosen over other potential partners. A mutually beneficial partnership resulted which aided in the expansion of the Perdomo operation. By 2001, Tabacalera Perdomo employed 622 people in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

as well as 24 in the United States, who were projected to make 10 million cigars for the year. The company produces a wide range of handmade cigars ranging from entry-level bundled products to its flagship, the Perdomo Patriarch. Perdomo produces a wide array of products on behalf of other companies, including retailing giant Thompson & Co. and cigar distributor Philips and King, in addition to their own products.

Company today

Today Perdomo's manufacturing operation is based in an facility in Estelí, Nicaragua, known colloquially as "El Monstro" (The Monster). The building is the second-largest cigarmaking facility in Nicaragua, trailing only the factory of Nicaraguan American Tobaccos S.A. (NATSA), also located in Estelí.David Savona
"Nicaragua: The New Start for Nicaragua,"
''Cigar Aficionado,'' November–December 2003. Headquarters are located in

. Over 2,000 people were employed by the company in 2010, according to the company's website. Nick Perdomo, Jr. remains as President and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Tabacalera Perdomo, while his wife, Janine Perdomo, serves as Vice President of Operations. The couple's son, Nicholas Perdomo III (born c. 1992), is being taught every aspect of the cigar making process from planting to packaging. Their daughter, Natalie (born c. 1995), graduated from the University of Alabama in 2017 and is working for the company now in marketing and advertising.Nick Perdomo, Interview with The Wine Wench, Blog Talk Radio, August 19, 2010, 30:29 mark.

Perdomo products

* Perdomo * Perdomo Exhibicion * Perdomo Small Batch Series * Perdomo Factory Tour Blend * Perdomo Double Aged 12 Year Vintage * Perdomo Special Craft Series * Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage * Perdomo Limited Cameroon Edition * Perdomo² (squared) * Perdomo Edición de Silvio * Perdomo Fresco * Perdomo Gran Cru * Perdomo Habano * Perdomo Inmenso * Perdomo Lot 23 * Perdomo Moments * Perdomo 20th Anniversary * Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary * Perdomo Reserve Golf * Cuban Bullet * Dos Rios * Genuine Cuban Counterfeits * La Tradición Cabinet Series * Nick's Sticks * Tierra del Sol

References

External links

Tabacalera Perdomo homepage
perdomocigars.net/ Retrieved September 14, 2010. Age verification required.
Perdomo Cigars Facebook page
facebook.com/ Retrieved September 14, 2010.
''1000 Hands,''
Perdomo factory tour video. youtube.com/ Retrieved September 14, 2010.
"The Perdomo Factory Tour uncut trailer,"
facebook.com/ Retrieved September 14, 2010. * The Wine Wench
Interview with Nick Perdomo Jr.
Blog Talk Radio, August 19, 2010.
Perdomo Cigars Australia
perdomocigars.com.au/ Retrieved November 29, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Perdomo (cigar brand) Manufacturing companies established in 1992 Cigar brands Cigar manufacturing companies 1992 establishments in Florida