tcW: How old were you when you rolled your first cigar? How did it burn/smoke?

Jorge: I was probably eighteen or nineteen years old and I can honestly tell you that it was not very good. I should have been fired.

tcW: What can you share with our readers about the history of the Padron Cigar Company? Where and when and with whom did it begin? How has it progressed and/or moved until where it is today?

Jorge:This is a long story! To tell you the story of Padron Cigars I must first tell you about the Padron Family and how we got started in the cigar business. My great grandfather, Damaso Padron, began growing tobacco in the late 1800’s in a small agricultural town in Cuba called Las Ovas in the province of Pinar del Rio. He slowly began to expand his crops, always concentrating on the quality of his tobacco. This philosophy of quality over quantity was passed from one generation of Padron’s to the next.

We now fast forward to 1961 when my father was forced out of Cuba because of the revolution. He first went to Spain, then New York and eventually settled in Miami, FL. He arrived in Miami penniless but full of desire to rebuild his life and to live in freedom. He began cutting lawns by day, and working carpentry jobs by night; saving every penny he could.

Being a cigar smoker, he realized that he and many other Cuban refugees missed the flavor of their Cuban cigars. He then began developing the idea of starting a cigar business. He believed that the Cubans would always miss their homeland, but he did not want them to also have to miss their cigars. He eventually saved enough money ($600) to start his business, and in September 1964, Padron Cigars was founded. It was founded with one cigar roller, who would roll 200 cigars a day that my father would sell at night. Over the years production grew and although faced with competitors with much greater financial resources, Padron Cigars became the cigar of choice among cigar smokers in Miami.

In 1970 my father opened his factory in Esteli, Nicaragua with four rollers. This factory slowly increased its production until eventually, all Miami production was replaced with production from Nicaragua. In 1979 our second factory was opened in Danli, Honduras. This factory was originally opened because of the civil war occurring in Nicaragua. A year earlier, one of our warehouses and our factory were burned to the ground during a confrontation in Esteli. We were able to re-open the factory in another location one month later. Due to the economic embargo placed on Nicaragua by President Reagan all of our Nicaraguan operations ceased for the five year period between 1985 and 1990. Fortunately, peace and democracy were reestablished in Nicaragua in 1990, and we resumed full operations there. We currently operate both factories and have recently moved into our new distribution center in Miami. I am also proud to add that after starting with one cigar roller making 200 cigars a day Padron Cigars has sold over 130 million cigars in it’s forty one year history. (continued...)