Massive Cigar Factory Fire

[Pugman1943]

As a service to the members I just grabbed this information from Halfwheel.com

Tabacalera William Ventura has become an increasingly well-known and well-respected factory in recent years, producing its own line of cigars under the ADV & McKay and ADVentura names, as well as making cigars for Caldwell Cigar Co., Bellatto Premium Cigars, Freud Cigar Co., Room101, J. London Cigars and others. Intercigar S.A. is the home of the Vallejuelo line as well as a number of other brands, and has produced cigars for RVGN Rauchvergnügen.

According to Marcel Knobel of ADV & McKay Cigars Co., who was one of several people to confirm the news of the fire to halfwheel, the two companies shared the same building.

In a statement, the owners of Tabacalera William Ventura said that the cause has not yet been identified but did say that there were no injuries to report. “Regardless of the findings of the investigation, the cause doesn’t change the outcome. We have lost everything. Nothing in the factory is salvageable.”

The fire did not damage a smaller factory and facility owned by the Venturas, known as El Maestro, which is used to produce smaller projects. The company said that all production would immediately move to that facility while the main factory is unavailable.

“We are working tirelessly to keep from dramatically disrupting our work flow, but rest assured we will be back stronger than ever,” the company wrote in a press release. “We acknowledge we have suffered a great loss, but our commitment to excellence is our sole focus. Tabacalera William Ventura is broken hearted for their clients whose brands have become known and loved by so many. Their commitment to provide the best cigars will not be compromised. They will not rush the process. Their process is what makes Tabacalera William Ventura. We will be back. We ask but one favor of the cigar community, please be patient with the brands whose cigars we manufacture. Please be patient with all of the retailers who carry the products we produce. We need your support now more than ever.”

The Zona Franca La Palma complex is home to several cigar factories, including the PDR Cigars factory, which sits next to one of the buildings that was on fire. As of the latest report, the first had not yet spread to PDR Cigars but remained a threat due to the proximity of the two buildings. The area is also home to Tabacalera Palma, makers of La Galera and numerous other lines, though that facility is located further into the complex and away from the fire.

 

[CigSid]

One of my Cuban cigars just caught fire last night… it took me about an hour to put it out.

 

[CBoukal]

One of my Cuban cigars just caught fire last night… it took me about an hour to put it out.

File an insurance claim

 

[Smokemorestressless]

This was just posted by Caldwell on their facebook page about the Ventura fire.


"Friends & Family,

Last Monday Tabacalera William Ventura burned down. This is the factory where the majority of our brands were made. The Ventura family were not just producers for us, but our family as well.
We started our brand with them 10 years ago. Ironically, our first production order was placed almost exactly 10 years ago to the day. We have been with them the whole time, through thick and through thin.
When we were introduced to the Venturas, they were a tiny factory making excellent cigars. Over the years, we have grown together through two more factories, until finally landing in our most current factory in the free trade zone. Our first order with them was around 75,000 cigars (meant to last a year). By the time that the factory burned down, the production had grown to over 100,000 cigars a month.
We have grown through bugs, plugs, storms, droughts, strikes, shortages, surpluses, fights, threats, pain and pride. Without the Venturas, there would be no Caldwell and vice versa. We have worked in stride over the last ten years and have grown into family with a common goal of moving forward.
The company is maintained by William Ventura, the patriarch of the business, along with his sons, Wiber and Henderson. His daughter, Nataly runs the El Maestro production.
The fire was a total loss, affecting many brands and many families. Some were newcomers like Freud (they had me at first puff), some were there before us, like Jonathan Fiant and his J. London brand (I snatched every Lancero I could on every visit to the factory), the Adventura brand owned by Henderson Ventura (never made a good cigar but doesn’t stop trying) and my boy Matt Booth’s Room101 (Farce Maduro. Mike Drop.).
The beauty is that all of us are resilient, so this is a hurdle we will jump, not a wall that will stop us.
The dust settled enough for us to come down this week and get our plan together. Luckily, William kept his prior factory open (El Maestro), where we roll most of our Lost&Found production brands, so we have a facility available to use. They expect to have production up and running there for the brands that were being rolled at TWV within the next couple weeks.
This is a love/hate industry when you’re on our side of the cigar. It is a never ending challenge with so many different components, from tobacco to packaging. Some finished, boxed cigars are made using materials from 15 different sources from the rings to the boxes to all of the different leaves inside. To get those wheels turning again from a dead stop is no easy task. And then we still have to sell them.
The beauty of this industry is reflected through the unity that we share. I cannot count how many calls for support and help came in to us from consumers, retailers, manufacturers, distributors, etc. The factory had an equal, if not greater outpouring of support. When we were brought to our knee, we had a hundred hands to help us back up.

Onward & Upward
The bad news: We lost every single cigar we had in the factory. We lost all Caldwell and La Barba packaging, as well as the Lost&Found packaging being warehoused there.
Additionally, we lost a tremendous amount of tobacco that we processed at the factory, as well specialty tobaccos that went into some of our lines that is irreplaceable.
The following brands will be discontinued once our stock in Miami is sold: The Last Tsar, Midnight Express, Eastern Standard Sungrown, Pacific Standard, La Barba Red, La Barba Purple. Savages production may or may not resume next year.
The good news is that we have several months of inventory in Miami, so we are expecting to only face a month or two back order at the beginning of next year on the brands that will continue from TWV, which are: The King Is Dead, Long Live The King, LLTK Mad Mofo, Eastern Standard, Blind Man’s Bluff Maduro and all three lines of Ricochet. In addition, BMB This Is Trouble will re-emerge as a multiple-facing production line in the late winter. Our packaging suppliers are racing to send us finished (already completed) packaging from their warehouses, as well as expediting delivery of all other packaging. We have a ton of tobacco that is warehoused outside, so we will be able to restart and maintain production of our remaining portfolio coming out of TWV.
In addition to restarting production this month, we are working closely with a couple friends in the industry to advance new projects that will be replacing our lost ones.

If you read this whole thing, you’re a better man than I.

-Caldwell
"

 

[kann]

I came away from that read incredibly inspired and in fighting spirit, myself! Man, what a letter -- lays out the facts, and then the rest is about carrying on and moving forward. The losses were crippling, but not a knockout. Best to them all.

In other thoughts, that fire must have smelled GLORIOUS!

 

[ChuckJr]

In other thoughts, that fire must have smelled GLORIOUS!

I have 3 coffee cans full of cigar butts that I intend to give a Viking Funeral if this dry spell ever lets up enough to build a fire in the burn pit.

 

[Smokemorestressless]

I wonder which side of the fire federales stand on when burning confiscated materials.