Davidoff Tampa Rebrands to Corona Cigar Co.

The Davidoff of Geneva — since 1911 flagship in Tampa is now operating as Corona Cigar Co.

Davidoff of Geneva USA announced that after nearly seven years in business, the store is rebranding to Corona Cigar Co., effective today. The Tampa location was and is a franchise location, operated by Jeff and Tanya Borysiewicz, who also own the Corona Cigar Co. chain of stores in Orlando. While the store will now operate at Corona Cigar Co., it will remain a Davidoff appointed merchant, meaning it will still carry a range of Davidoff cigars.

“The past seven years has been a blessing with all the wonderful support from Davidoff, our staff and the Tampa community,” said Jeff Borysiewicz in a press release distributed by Davidoff. “We look forward to continuing the ultimate cigar experience as a Davidoff Appointed Merchant as we operate under the Corona Cigar Company flagship brand in Tampa and at our new location opening soon in Sarasota.”

It is located at 4142 W Boy Scout Blvd. and includes large open space concept with aisles of shelves, a full bar, members lockers and a private room on the second floor.

Davidoff’s Tampa location came as the company was aggressively expanding its U.S. retail footprint with new locations in Atlanta, Houston and New York. Unlike those three cities, the Tampa store—which is located about 20 minutes from Davidoff’s U.S. headquarters—was a franchise store while the other three were company-owned. Last year, Davidoff closed the Atlanta location, though Houston, multiple New York City locations and a franchise store in Las Vegas remain open.

While the Davidoff Tampa store has been popular with customers, the relationship between Davidoff and the Borysiewiczs has not been without its challenges, even publicly. In late 2019, Jeff Borysiewicz was one of a number of retailers who publicly expressed frustration following Davidoff of Geneva USA’s announcement about the AVO Unexpected line, a series of four limited edition cigars that ended up being repackaged regular production cigars. Davidoff had hoped that by removing the established labels it could get customers to smoke the cigars without preconceived notions; some retailers were upset because they were concerned their customers were paying more for the cigars than the original versions.