June 12, 2013 (Miami, Fla.) — Fabricas Unidas is pleased to announce that the Aladino Factory in Danli, Honduras has been opened and is now fully functional, along with its box factory, just in time for this year’s IPCPR.

Christian Eiroa’s new factory is located in the same location as the historical Danli landmark, El Cine Aladino; a movie theater opened by Mr. Antonio Kafati in the 1970’s by Christian Eiroa’s grandfather. Aladino Factory was built to be climate controlled for the comfort of the rollers while providing the perfect micro-climate for tobacco.

Although training and conditioning began in January 2013, the process has been slow and detailed. Still today the production is very small, only 4,000 cigars per day by 16 pairs of qualified, hand selected rollers and it will be capped at 6,000 per day in 2014. All rollers have been trained a specialized bunching system all the while respecting the highest levels of hygiene as mandated by Bayer’s Better Manufacturing Practices. Cigar wrappers are stripped and applied in a completely different system never used in Honduras before. The approach to making cigars is different altogether in order to maintain the highest level of consistency possible. The rollers will have the benefit of having a chance to come to the U.S. and roll cigars at the up and coming Wynwood Cigar Factory in Miami’s Art District.

The Aladino Factory already makes the Asylum 13 Corojo and the crowned jewels of the Eiroa family (which will be arriving into the U.S. this June / July 2013), CLE Plus and EIROA. Eventually, the production for the entire Fabricas Unidas portfolio will be moved to El Aladino but the date has not been set yet. These brands include CLE Corojo, CLE Cuarenta, CLE Connecticut and Wynwood Honduras. Only one private label will be made at this factory for Tony Bellato and Craig Rossi called La Barba Cigars. Production for Asylum 13, Asylum Premium, EH, Pura Soul and OSOK will remain in Nicaragua.

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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.