Luciano Cigars Opening Second Factory Next Month

Next month, Luciano Cigars is scheduled to open its second cigar factory, which it will be using to produce some of its lines as well as its private label and contract client business.

The newly built facility will operate under the same Luciano Tobaccos S.A. name as the existing facility, but Luciano Meirelles said it is being referred to as the Maria Lucia unit, a reference to one of the cigar lines that the company will be producing in the new facility, and which is named for Meirelles’ mother.

The factory will also produce the Luciano Cigars’ M.X.S. line, along with the ATL Cigar Co. portfolio, which the company began distributing in November 2022.

Meirelles said the new facility is located in Estelí’s Rosario neighborhood, approximately two miles from the company’s current factory, and that it is approximately 7,000 square feet in size. While it is smaller than the company’s existing factory, which Meirelles estimated to be about 12,000 square feet in size, he noted that the new facility will be able to operate much more efficiently.

Meirelles said that the factory will start with approximately 17 rolling tables, which will allow the factory to produce 5,000-6,000 cigars per day, though it has the capacity to accommodate 35 tables, which would push production to around 10,000 cigars per day, similar to the capacity of the existing factory. In the meantime, that space will be used for tobacco fermentation, Meirelles said.

The current plan is to have the new factory operational by the end of March, Meirelles told halfwheel, adding that the building itself is done, with equipment being moved in over the coming weeks.

As for whether or not cigars made at the new factory will be identified as such, Meirelles said he is still deciding about that, since both facilities will operate under the Luciano Cigars name.

In a press release, the company added that between the two facilities and what it called “a soon to be announced manufacturing strategic partnership,” production capacity is expected to surpass 4 million cigars in 2023.

The announcement of the new facility coincides with Luciano Cigars saying that it has resumed full shipments of its portfolio following a recent gap in its ability to fulfill orders of some products following its separation from Crowned Heads. That separation resulted in the company beginning to self-distribute its cigars as of November 1.

The press release also noted that the company continues to expand its tobacco growing and processing operations in Nicaragua’s Pueblo Nuevo, Jalapa and Condega regions.

Images courtesy of Luciano Cigars.