ADV & McKay Cigars Co. Announces Opening of New Mina del Rey Factory

In the early morning hours of Sept. 22, 2022, the cigar world learned of a fire in Tamboril, Dominican Republic, that completely destroyed Tabacalera William Ventura, a factory known for producing several well-known brands and that was the home of ADV & McKay Cigars Co., a growing company led by Henderson Ventura and Marcel Knobel.

As that facility continues to rebuild and return to full operation, something slated to be completed by the end of this year, Ventura and Knobel have announced the launch of a new factory that is solely dedicated to their brand, a new facility called Mina del Rey, which translates as Mine of the King. Both it and the company’s tobacco facility are located in Tamboril, just about five minutes from Tabacalera William Ventura.

Coincidentally, the new facility is located on Calle Ventura, or Ventura Street, and which is located in the region where Henderson’s father’s family is from.

Ventura said that the decision was made to create a new, dedicated factory for ADV & McKay on June 21, and it launched its first operations on Aug. 18. “ADVentura was ready to move to the next step,” he told halfwheel, saying that he is confident that the move to a new facility will help the company move to the next level of quality for its cigars.

It is currently at about 60 percent of full capacity, meaning a pace that would produce approximately 600,000 cigars over a full year. Ventura said that the facility has the capacity to grow to around one million cigars per year, a number it will hit as it hires and trains more rollers and other staff. Currently, the facility has six pairs producing cigars, with the goal of getting to nine pairs by the end of 2023, while there are eight other employees in other functions.

The facility is currently able to store approximately one million cigars in its aging room, with the goal to be able to age cigars for between five and six months before releasing them, which is more than double what would be considered the typical amount of rest cigars get before leaving a factory.

The facility has already produced more than 40,000 cigars for its ADVentura The Royal Return Queen’s Pearls line, which placed #3 on halfwheel’s Top 25 Cigars of 2020 list. It was also where the recently released La Llorona Corona was produced, and the company has focused much of its recent production on The Royal Return King’s Gold line, though all of its portfolio is now produced in the new factory.

By moving ADV & McKay to its own dedicated factory, Ventura said that the company will have more freedom to work on unique projects, including exclusive sizes, small batch blends, and collaborations, though he noted that the company is not looking to take on private label projects or produce cigars for other brands.

Knobel added that as ADV & McKay grew as a brand, it became harder for Tabacalera William Ventura to accommodate what the pair sought regarding capacity and flexibility. The new facility not only gives them more control over both of those areas, but also brings them closer to decisions about quality control and other aspects of the cigar making process.

Ventura added that all the rollers at Mina del Rey are on salaries as opposed to being paid simply by how many cigars they produce, which he estimated can vary between 250 and 400 per person, depending on the particular cigar they are rolling at the time. He has focused on hiring a staff made up of people new to the cigar-making process, which he said allows him to train them in the methods he wants used to produce cigars.

Additionally, the factory has given him the opportunity to implement other ideas, most notably the practice of educating every worker about tobacco, saying he wants the staff to understand “the whys of the industry” to give them a better, more advanced understanding and appreciation for not just what they do as an individual does, but the larger picture of what the factory does.

He also said that the factory uses wider rolling tables, both for worker comfort and to accommodate blends with several types of filler tobacco, which in turn will allow more accurate bunching of cigars and thus better profile consistency of the final product. Bunched cigars remain in the molds for 24 hours before the wrappers are added, with Ventura saying no wrapper will go on a cigar the same day it is bunched. This is to reduce the lines that the molds can leave on cigars as well as to achieve a better pace of production.

Sustainability initiatives, such as reusable fabric wraps for cigar bundles, and enhancements for worker health, such as the use of hand sanitizer, have also been implemented. Several of the doors in the facility are reclaimed wood from other factories in the area.

“I felt like I was in jail for a year and is finally coming out,” Ventura said in discussing the new factory.