Michael Cellucci, the former president of Drew Estate, has joined Quality Importers as president and chief operating officer.

Quality Importers is owned by Michael Giordano. It serves as the overarching name to a variety of businesses, most notably a wholesale humidor company, but also cigar cutter brands like Palió and Shuriken, Stinky ashtrays, Cigar Caddy travel humidors and Get-A-Grip cigar clips. The company also sells furniture and art for commercial applications. Giordano stressed that while Quality Importers serves as the overarching parent, each company is its own entity.

Cellucci will be tasked with building the company’s senior management, managing key accounts and rebranding some of the consumer brands the company sells. In addition, he’s leading a project that will expand the company’s Weston, Fla. headquarters to 40,000-square-feet as it fully transitions Orleans Group into the Quality Importers’ facility. The company acquired Orleans Group last year.

“Giordano runs a great business,” said Cellucci in a statement to halfwheel. “I have worked with him on several key projects and have known him for a lot of years now. I have always been impressed with what he has built . He has a relentless hard charging style that is balanced by a strong fiscal responsibility.”

Cellucci left Drew Estate last July, days before the 2016 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show. He served as president from 2012-2016, a period of time that saw the company acquired by Swisher International.

“After spending more than 17 years at Drew Estate and experiencing all of the good, the bad, and the ugly, I was looking for an environment that was aggressive, agile, and not filled with corporate bloat. I wanted an opportunity to get some dirt under my fingernails again. It was clear from our first talks together that Quality Importers would be a great fit for me.”

There are some areas of the business Cellucci will not participate in. For starters, he has no current role in Big Easy Tobacco Co., a tobacco distributor that Giordano also owns. Cellucci has a one-year non-compete that expires in July that prevents him from working for any tobacco company. In addition, Giordano will continue to spearhead the company’s acquisition and financing efforts, an area where Quality Importers has been extremely aggressive in recent years.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.