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 binde ...

primarily grown and produced in

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

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, officially the Town of Miami Lakes, is an incorporated town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The town is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,467. History ...

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 (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center."History,"
perdomocigars.net/ Retrieved September 14, 2010. Perdomo went into the

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and Fermentation, fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking, smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct comp ...

industry as a young man, serving his apprenticeship for

Cuesta y Cia A cuesta () 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, the whole being tilted somew ...

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 manufa ...

, 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 () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

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 politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

. 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 and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

, 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 In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a free and fair trial. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a summary offense, a ...

. 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, 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 the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

an Embassy with the help of a sponsorship from the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

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 is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, to

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

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 Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

, in which he served as an

air traffic controller An Air traffic controller (ATC) is a person responsible for the coordination of traffic in their assigned airspace. Typically stationed in area control centers or control towers, they monitor the position, speed, and altitude of aircraft and c ...

. 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 international airport serving Miami and its Miami metropolitan area, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Florida. It hosts over 1, ...

. 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 Tabacalera 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, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and

fillers In animal feed, a filler is an ingredient added to provide dietary fiber, bulk or some other non-nutritive purpose. Products like corn fiber (corncobs), fruit fibers (pulp), rice bran, and whole grains are possible fillers. Purpose As source ...

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, mai ...

, near

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa'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 t ...

, 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 (marketing), premium cigars began to rise dramatically and manufacturers struggled to ...

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 hinge A hinge is a mechanical bearing that connects two solid objects, typically allowing only a limited ang ...

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, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, 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 is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

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 chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

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

(active) * PERDOMO 30TH ANNIVERSARY * PERDOMO DOUBLE-AGED 12 YEAR VINTAGE * PERDOMO 20TH ANNIVERSARY * PERDOMO 10TH ANNIVERSARY * PERDOMO HABANO BOURBON BARREL-AGED * PERDOMO PERDOMO LOT 23 * PERDOMO INMENSO SEVENTY * PERDOMO PERDOMO FRESCO (inactive) * Perdomo * Perdomo Exhibicion * Perdomo Small Batch Series * Perdomo Factory Tour Blend * Perdomo Special Craft Series * Perdomo Estate Seleccion Vintage * Perdomo Limited Cameroon Edition * Perdomo² (squared) * Perdomo Edición de Silvio * Perdomo Gran Cru * Perdomo Moments * 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