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| HENKE KELNER TALKS AGING |
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In fact, after the work of the bunchers and rollers on the noisy and busy factory floor is completed, a series of quality control checks continues throughout the process of checking each cigar by hand, then by width and weight before being sent to a store room. There, the cigars will rest for 21 days at a constant humidity of 70 percent, packed in multi-level trays of up to 500 cigars depending on size. The cigars also receive fumigation for tobacco beetles for an additional five days. Then the cigars are sorted by color, banded and cellophaned and boxed for shipment.Davidoff's production is quite unusual in that almost none of the cigars are boxed in the Dominican Republic. Instead, trays of 100 or 200 cigars are shipped to one of three distribution points for worldwide sales: to Stamford, Connecticut for the U.S. market, to a finishing facility in Germany for most of Europe and to a facility in Switzerland for that country, for duty-free sales and for all other markets worldwide. There, Davidoff cigars are placed in the familiar wooden cabinets and are finally ready for sale. And there are a lot of sales. Kelner counted 14 brands that are made in his three factories. The main facility for Davidoff makes only Davidoff and the new Winston Churchill cigar lines. The OK Cigar facility produces the other brands which are sold worldwide by Davidoff of Geneva: Avo, The Griffin's, Private Stock and Zino. The Occidental Cigar facility makes brands which are owned and sold by others, such as Mike Chiusano’s Cusano lines, Alan Rubin’s Alec Bradley lines and the Paul Garmirian Gourmet Series. Kelner said that of the 31 million cigars his factories made last year, about 10.5 million were Davidoffs, about 4.4 million were Avo brand, 2.5 million were Zinos and about 1.7 million of The Griffin’s. "A man is lucky when he has a large family," said Kelner, who has six children of his own, but thinks of his 1,550 employees as family as well. But he is also worried "about the contraction of the industry, and this will continue." He's heard the rumors about Reynolds American buying Swisher International and either Philip Morris or Scandanavian Tobacco buying Swedish Match. "This is not like the cigarette business," he notes, "Cigars are a family business, a business of friends. In the future, we may lose that." Kelner is well positioned for the future, with plenty of tobacco coming in from his own farms and from 82 contract farmers in the Dominican Republic and other tobacco-growing countries. With the Davidoff brand, he helped to firmly establish the place of the Dominican Republic as producers of world-class cigars. How that happened is another great story, but for another time. The Festival program has been well organized this far by ProCigar, the association of Dominican cigar manufacturers. The 120 attendees have been separated into three groups and each is visiting the four featured factories in a different order. We'll have a full report from the La Aurora and MATASA facilities tomorrow and from the General Cigar complex on Monday. ~ Rich Perelman CLASSIFIED ADVERTISINGCigar Humidors and Cigar Accessories at Humidor Vault! Your online cigar humidor source, with rock-bottom pricing and fantastic customer support!Like sports? Get news and commentary you won’t see in your morning newspaper at TheSportsExaminer.com! Join the examination! A limited amount of classified advertising is available in this space on a weekly basis. For details, call Pat Harris at (213) 365-7965 or inquire by email by clicking here. Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below! Don’t forget to register for our drawing for free cigars and accessories! Just click on the “Register & Win” button above; enter today! Looking for a cigar party? Take a look at our exclusive list of hundreds of cigar events across the country, listed by state and date, only on CigarCyclopedia.com!
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Dan
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| I wonder what kind of fumigation process the cigars are treated with: freezing, vacuum, or chemical? | |
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Did you know?
“Cigars were introduced to the American Colonies by British Col. Israel Putnam on his return from Cuba in 1762.
