![]() ![]() At that point, his brands were made mostly in Honduras. Patel’s expansion to Nicaragua started in 2009 with the opening of the first TaviCusa, which Patel started with Amilcar Perez-Castro. Here, under the strong, phosphorescent glow of more fluorescent lights, 72 rollers make 10,000 cigars per day-and Rocky has complete control. He passes a shrine of Rocky Patel products displayed in a glass humidor before opening a pair of swinging saloon doors that lead directly to the rolling room. Patel gets up out of his seat and migrates from the makeshift conference room into the lobby. They’re made at Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Danlí, a huge factory that was once the UST factory. to produce his Vintage 1990, 19 cigar brands. In addition, Patel also entrusts General Cigar Co. “That’s how smoothly that operation runs.” “I sometimes forget that the Honduran factory is there-that’s how good they are,” Patel says of the Plasencias. and their work on Patel’s brands has helped lay the foundation for what’s becoming Patel’s mini cigar empire. Add to that the giant facility in Honduras also dedicated to producing myriad Rocky Patel cigars such as The Edge, which is owned by father-and-son team Nestor Plasencia Jr. ![]() His company owns two tobacco farms in Nicaragua, the 8,000 square-foot TaviCusa factory in Estelí and a portfolio of more than 100 brands, each of them distributed through Rocky Patel Premium Cigars Inc. His sales have grown from 16 million cigars in 2010 to almost 20 million now, and Patel finds himself with more assets than ever before. His presence is a supplement to the brand, and being everywhere at once has paid off. If you’re willing to try any of Rocky’s cigars, he’s willing to traverse the globe just to shake your hand and talk-sometimes quite floridly-about the smoke and all that’s gone into it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a member of Russian parliament at a cigar bar in Moscow or a city employee at some coffee shop in Bayonne, New Jersey. No venue is too small, no shop too remote. The world-weary Patel has spent a particularly exhausting decade on the road promoting his large portfolio of brands. Patel takes the two-hour flight from Miami to Nicaragua whenever he can just to oversee the operation, albeit intermittently. This reject is one of many blends put together for him at Tabacalera Villa Cuba S.A., more casually known as TaviCusa, the home to an increasing number of his blends, including Rocky Patel Royale and Rocky Patel Fifteenth Anniversary. He places it on an ashtray and looks for another cigar. “I’m looking for complexity more than anything else,” he says. After a few puffs, the 53-year-old puts it down and makes a face as though he’s just tasted something sour. ![]() He lights up a concept cigar, a contender to become part of his portfolio of brands, which accounted for nearly 20 million in unit sales in 2013. It’s his, and it’s precisely this ownership that gives him tighter rein on a process already fraught with variables. This isn’t a facility that he sublets, nor a space that belongs to anyone else. ![]() Today, he’s at his TaviCusa factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. A few days before that, he was in Mexico. Just the night before, he was hosting a Super Bowl party in Queens, New York. He sits sedately at a long table in a windowless chamber that’s part conference room, part kitchen, and his hair appears overly gray under the harsh florescent lights. Few actually do, but if Andrew Carnegie could pull it off with his steel company, why not Rocky Patel? Many cigar makers in the premium sector claim to have complete control. As a concept, it’s simple-control every aspect of production, from raw materials to manufacturing to distribution. Vertical integration is something that Rocky Patel has been thinking about for a long time. ![]()
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