- The first time we met Litto- - On the line. - I think it was at a cigar store, probably in the Midwest maybe. Maybe the Chicago area. Or whatever. And I remember meeting Litto. Tim and I were there. Litto was there doing his thing and introducing ourselves. You're probably wondering, "Who the hell are these guys?" But we were just trying to meet and get to know an up-and-coming, really. He has really already arrived.
Of course, we were brand new in the industry at the time, but I just remember that conversation, just the respect that you gave us and the ability to, you know. We were probably wondering, these two are gonna be here this year and gone next year is probably what he was thinking. But we were telling him about what we did and everything else. And that was the first time. I wish I remembered the store. I don't remember the store. - And you know what?
There's few cases like that, that I have seen over the years. And like Michael Frey, for example. Okay? - Yes. - Michael Frey, he came into the industry in a moment in which there was no cigars for anybody. You wanna open a store and there was no cigars for you, okay? Because nobody, none of the cigar makers had enough cigars for the traditional customers. - Sure. - And Michael and Robert Frey, they were coming to every event of the industry and hanging out with us, with every cigar maker.
They would be in every event. And they had the store. It was open already. - Yeah. - And they were with us all the time. And that's how they got cigars. I mean, these guys- - Smart. Smart guys. - They are in the industry and they come to every event. - They just built a relationship- - And they're nice. I compare you guys with Michael, and it's a couple of more cases in which these people are doing it right. I mean, they come to the industry and they're part of every event.
And they meet and they introduce themselves to, whether you're a supplier or a possible customer, I've seen cases like that. And the people that have done that were successful. - Yeah. - That's half the battle is being there, right? You gotta be there. You gotta be present. - Yeah, you become a part of the family somehow. - You gotta be interwoven in the fabric of everything in order to- - Exactly, exactly. - To be there. - And for some reason, everybody liked you guys, you know?
- Yeah. (laughs) - Well, there's a difference between just wanting to be in the business, to be in business as opposed to having a passion and a real desire and care for the industry. We're fans. So we're first and foremost, Tim and I are cigar fans. We love the product. And we felt like we had a place in the industry passionately to really solve problems that really existed out there. So we come from that point of view with a deep level of care and passion in the industry.
And so when we meet you two, and for example, meet Litto, it's like, "Wow, this is an honor to meet someone who's made it and who has a following and people covet their cigars and all of that." - But also has the passion. I mean, what you've done with your business has been significant. I mean, you went all in and bought your own farm, started growing your own tobacco. Not everybody goes down that road. Some people just build brands and have other people make them for them. But you went all in.
And that's a huge sacrifice. - Yeah. - That's a passion play. - The first story that you said that I remember that clicks in my mind was when you were talking about the early days when you started. And it's a business lesson that's really key. And you were talking about those cigars, the thousands and thousands of cigars that didn't meet your qualities. I was thinking Ben Hogan when he ripped up his golf clubs, when he didn't wanna put his name on them.
But you tell that story when you were, just the quality standards and the demand for excellence with your name on it, you know? - It is, and I'm gonna go back to you guys. And they have this structure. Like every time this guy see you, they tell you something nice, right? - Yes. - How elegant you look. They're programed to be successful. - Oh, I love these guys. I feel like a million bucks. - You never see them, you don't get a compliment from them, okay? Yeah. Yeah, you guys know your shit.
- Litto always tells me, you like the Boveda guys because they always laugh at your stupid jokes. I said, "Fuck them." (all laughing) - One of the funniest guys I know. - I know. - Fun to be around because, one of the, I mean, look at those three. These guys are creative. You guys are seriously very, very creative. But you did a skit. When you guys were on trying to reach the stuff and you couldn't reach the cigars, but your dad, he could reach them.
You panned out and your dad was, all that stuff is creatives. People need to look that one up if they haven't seen it. - That's a great one. - Have you seen that Drew? - I have not. - It's a skit. Look at some of their skits. These guys are brilliant and funny on the skits that they put together. Yeah, they're good. You guys still do those? - We haven't done one in a while. We really- - Gotta bring that back. - I was thinking about that yesterday.
- I gotta put pen to paper and come up with some. We'll do some soon. - And most of the stuff we've done comes up like in a minute. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Tony come, or Litto come. - Yeah, we do something. - You do something, yeah. - Something just come and it just happens naturally. Yeah. - We gotta do it. - Well, it's- - So like- - Go ahead, go ahead. - Oh, I was just gonna say, it shows the fun that you're having doing business, right? It's a way of life.
It's a sport of business, and you just have to enjoy the journey along the way every time, because it's not easy every day. - And very different it makes. Like, yeah, you're gonna work for a paycheck, right? Happiness on Friday. - Yeah. - But there's nothing in your soul that attracts you other than that paycheck you get on a Friday. How sad is that? - Yeah, very empty. - It's pretty empty. - Yeah. - Because the check, the money from the check goes away.
And then you got nothing in your soul, okay? So unless you find something that you're passionate about, you're gonna have a really boring life for the rest of your life if you don't look for something that you like, something that you love, something that gets you out of bed like very quick in the morning. And you wanna get to work in a rush because you wanna accomplish something. And then if you happen to accomplish it, that's what fills your soul. Everything that's material, okay?
You buy the car of your dreams today, right? And you get on it and you get out of the car and you look back at the car and you love it. And then in the next five, six days, you keep turning back after you leave the car and you look at it, "Man, that's beautiful." After a week, it's just a machine that takes you from point A to point B. There's nothing to it, right?
Now, the things that fill your soul because you accomplished something, okay, those are the things that make you alive and make you happy and stay with you. So if you're happy with what you accomplish every day, if you're happy with yourself, like that's what fills you up. There's nothing else. And I know every time, you know, I give a diamond to my wife, right? And she treats me like very nice for three or four days. After that, she treat me like shit again.
(all laughing) One day, I gave her a frame with a picture of us on a really nice trip. Man, that thing, she was talking about that for a year. - Let's just be conscious of there's a guy that just got engaged here. - Yeah, that's right, let's not ruin the sanctimony of marriage. - I'm not only talking to them, I'm talking to you too, okay? All right? - I do have to write a book one day of the advice from my father. There's some doozies in there. - Come on. - The words of my father.
- Well, that's an interesting segue, because what's it like to be his son? - That's a loaded question. - No, I'm just thinking about the reputation in the cigar industry, the story. I'm very curious to hear about how you felt when you started in the business and how your expectations have been met or missed over the years. But to come into the game as a son and to have a guy who, you won't like this, but people treat him like a legend. - Yeah. - So how's that? I mean, just how is that?
- I mean, first off, like it's an absolute pleasure. I think when I gave a speech the other day at his birthday party, I touched on it, but just to watch this guy, it's awesome. The way he makes things happen, he's got a certain way about him. And like I said, they don't make him like him anymore. I've learned a lot of incredible lessons from him. I've also learned about a lot of things not to do. (laughs) But no, he's unbelievable in like every facet of it.
He's an unbelievable person in the way he accomplishes things, the way he sets his head to a goal and he makes it happen. The guy's got no education. He didn't finish high school. He grew up on a dirt road. And he'll walk into Dominican Republic, he didn't know a single thing about making cigars. And look at him 30 years later, you know? It doesn't make any sense. He shouldn't have accomplished that, but he did somehow. So it's awesome.
And it puts you interesting position, because everybody has so much respect for him that it's gonna fall on me too. Everybody's nice to me just because he's my father. But you have to deal with that in a certain way because you want people to respect you for you also. I don't want to just be respected because I'm Litto's son for the rest of my life. I wanna be Tony Gomez too.
So that's the kind of the thing that's always there in the back of your head, like you wanna accomplish your own things too. You wanna contribute. - Look over your left shoulder. - Yep. - We didn't plan that. We didn't plan that, but we got Litto's For My Humidor poster is looking over your left shoulder. So the expectations from when you were starting, when you took the chance and your reflection on how your life has either met those or missed them. - Let me go back to the previous question.
I imagine that you come into an industry and there was somebody before you that built something and then you come into it. And it's probably complicated. It's probably not easy. But you're building a name for yourself. You have nothing to, whatever your reputation is has nothing to do with me. And you became your own person. You have your own style, which is an accomplishment by itself. - By itself. - Okay? It's just you, it doesn't matter who your father is.
You are you, and you are loved and respected because of the way you are. And you stayed with the way you are. You never tried to be someone else. And that, to me, it takes guts. It takes security in your own self-esteem. And it's something that is powerful to me. And I admire that. I admire the way you have conduct yourself and the respect you got. Learn not only with consumers or within the industry. - Thank you. - You build your own name.
And that's hard to do when you have somebody previous to you. - I know, definitely. - And that's a great thing that has been going on. And Litto seems like he's is gonna, junior seems like he's gonna have, he has his own personality. - I mean, oh, yeah. - It's kind of scary, but he does have his personality. Things I do, and you just mentioned my education level.
Just because the way I do things is orthodox because I have no education, I don't never follow a chain of command by these people under me. And I jump everybody else. Like I go straight to the people that are working, and I sit down with them and I talk to them. And if the guy that's just under me doesn't like it, just get out of here. - Yeah. - Okay? I don't want filters. Everybody has a filter. Everybody protected us. So I go directly to the people that work for me at the lower end.
And I talk to them. I talk about their families. I talk how their life is and what problems they're having with work. And I want that information unfiltered. - Sure. - And it doesn't look good. When you're in a structure and you get a size, you got the structure. One thing you have 10 employees, but another thing's you have 350, so now you have a structure, right? Because you can't talk to 350 people every day. Like you gotta have a structure of command.
But I don't really, I do it because I have to do it because I don't have time, but to speak to everybody, but I don't follow it. - Sure. - I'm very orthodox in the things that I do every day. - Well, it's a great trait of leadership of connecting with your people and having the interest in the care. - Yeah. - Doesn't matter who they are, but it can be on the personal level, but also just how they're doing within their job as well.
- About three weeks ago, I met with a few in my office, a few our employees in the sorting department. And I'm speaking to them. And this woman is telling me, "You know, Litto, you are a business person. And yet every time I go across you and you say, "Hi, how are you?" And then I found out about her life. I explain to them, listen.
And I told her about my life, about my first job in Canada when I immigrated, that I got to walk a mile every day from the last bus stop to get to the factory in the middle of the winter with the shoes from Uruguay that were not prepared for the weather. And by the time I got to the factory, my legs were frozen. And it take more than half hour to feel my legs again. And I'm telling this, woman start crying. I said, "This is where I come from.
You can't tell me about having issues at home, because in my house when I grew up, we will eat when there was food. So I grew up very poor. So there's nothing that you're living that I don't know how you feel about." And I know exactly. And this woman started crying. And and she goes, "Litto, I have no idea that you went through that in your life." And you know what?
It's a great, great experience to, that being able to communicate with your people like that, and that they get to know who you are also, because most people think, this guy's from a wealthy family or something. You got everything on a silver platter. And you know what? It is a great level of communication and feelings. And every time I see those women, after we had a talk, and I feel different about them and they feel different about me. - Human connection was real. - Exactly, yeah, exactly.
- There's something like very unique about you that I've noticed over the years, which I think is really, it's a cool thing, is that everybody at the company loves him, obviously. Like from the Miami office staff to our sales force, but even down to the cleaning staff at the factory, from top to bottom. But the unique thing is, even the people he's fired over the years and perhaps fired brutally, still fucking love him. - Yeah. - They all do.
- Remember the guy that worked at the printer upstairs? - Yes. - Not the guy before, the guy was in charge. What's his name? A cool guy with an earring. - Hanley. - The guy before Hanley that was in charge in the cool guy. Really cool guy, okay? And that day, Jochy [Blanco] and I went to cigar lounge in Tamboril, okay? The guy, a lovely guy, the guy that owns a cigar lounge and he was inviting us for a long time. So Jochy and I got together and said, "Let's go to his lounge."
And we show up there and this guy was there. - Yeah. - Okay? And the owner of the lounge, he called a saxophone guy to come and play for us. And then there was, you know, women come, and former employees of us that work at the factory. And some of them were working at the factory still. And we are in a social environment with the music playing and smoking cigars. They're customers of the same place that we have been customers, okay? - Interesting. - What an interesting mix that was.
- That's cool. - And this guy was there, the guy that I fired. And then the conversation started talking about the past and how we started. And Jochy helped me tremendously when I started. And we were telling the owner of the lounge, who happened to be the husband of the country's general attorney, a very powerful woman in the country, in Dominican Republic. She's the most powerful woman after the president. She can put anybody in jail. A very powerful and very brilliant woman.
And the guy that owns the lounge is the husband, okay? And so we have this interaction with, you know, some of our employees, some Jochy's former employees now work for us. And stories in the past, how we started, and the story went back to our childhood and our, you know. And these people that are either working for us or former employees, they had no idea. I mean, Jochy's story is amazing. Like Jochy's story is amazing. - He's been around the block, huh?
- Yeah, and even though he's from a comfortable family, okay, his father was a powerful guy, very well-respected and economically well off. But when he heard his father died, Jochy was not in a good position economically. And his father asked him to protect his nine brothers, and there was no money left when this father died, okay? So Tony, I mean, Jochy's story is an amazing one. These guys, our employees, they're listening to all this.
- When you first went down to the D.R., you didn't know what you were doing really for cigars, but you picked that out. And then did you approach Jochy first? Because you've got a lot of mentors that are within the industry that had a lot of experience, and what did they think about you coming there raw and they weren't intimidated by the newcomer coming in as a competitor, really. But yet they were open to you to- - He was a very strange bird down there when he first showed up.
I don't think they'd ever seen anybody quite like him. These old pictures of him that he'd be down there with like Versace shirts and like this kind of stuff. Like, "Who the hell is this guy? Who does he think he is?" - Yeah. (laughs) - I'm taking the flight to Puerto Plata back in those days. Not Santiago, there was no airport like now- - Sure. - And there was few cigar makers always in the cabin. And there with this Gianni Versace silk shirts would open up to here.
And gold chains and- - Miami Vice. - Yeah, Miami Vice. And this guy, see, I didn't fit the profile, the profile these guys are making. And this guys are looking at me and say, "Who's this guy?" - What is this? Yeah, that's great. - And so some were very reluctant. Like some were like, "Yeah, this is a mafia guy from Miami." You know Daniel Núñez, right?- - Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. - Okay. So happened that I went to buy a Bello Connecticut Shade. It was owned by General back in those days.
And I meet Daniel. And I went with one of my cigar rollers and he looked at the wrapper, and because I didn't know shit from wrappers. - Yeah. - And so he look at the wrapper and said, "This is good." So I said, "Okay, I'm gonna take this Bello tobacco." And then I paid him in cash with $20 bills, and I lived forever. He thought I was a drug dealer from Miami. - 100%, 100%. - He was a nice guy, Daniel Núñez. - He's a gentleman, a gentleman. - That's great. You're sitting there going.
- And these guys are legit. - Let me open my briefcase - I can account for every bill. - But some guys were very reluctant. I understood why, okay? I get it. - Well, back in those days, people didn't show up in open factories. - It was unheard of, it was unheard of. - If you weren't in for generations, you didn't come into it, you know? - Right. - And so it didn't even make any sense for you to be there. - Right, so they were worried. They were skeptical. But some of the guys did.
They saw something in me, okay? That made them trust me or think that I have a future in. And one of them was Jochy [Blanco], Carlito [Fuente] and my tobacco suppliers, people that I love so much, so dearly, because of the support they give me. - Was it hard? - And the trust. I mean, I show up as a guy, nobody knows who I am. So my tobacco supplier, I will go and pick up two beds of tobacco for the week. And when I finish those, I go pick up the next week, we go pick up more.
And this guy is giving me credit. "Take it, you pay me when you can." He doesn't know who I am, right? And so they saw something, which I don't know what it was back then, because I didn't have much of a profile of a successful cigar maker, okay? But they did see something, and they opened their hearts, their doors. - And this was at a hard time, right? Because you're talking the mid-90s, which is the boom. The boom is happening. - Showed up right before the boom, really.
- Yeah, it probably would've been tougher if you would've waited three years. - Oh my God, yeah. Yeah, completely. - You came in the perfect time - Yeah. - That's when you came in, then 100 other people came in. - Right. I come in, and so this is the thing. I'm trying to make cigars in Dominican, and finally, we get it right. And now we're packing and putting the first cigar in boxes, right? So we have some cigars to sell. So Ines [Lorenzo-Gomez] and I have a booklet.
It was published by Cigar Aficionado with a list of retail shops in the U.S. Name of the shop, the address, the phone number. And so we started from the beginning of that little booklet and we started calling. We called 25 people and 24 would say no. And I introduced myself. I said, my name is so and so. We just opened a little cigar factory in Dominican Republic. We would like to send you some samples to see if you like them. And then we will give you a call to see what you think.
And we'll send the samples, and then few days later, do a follow up call. And out of 25 people, 24 would say no, one would say yes, right? And then a few months after that, maybe a year after that, the cigar boom comes. It just exploded like so fast, right? So now you call 10 cigar shops and all 10 say yes. - Yes. It's a big difference. - Right. So what does it do for us? It gives La Flor the opportunity to be in the shops, to be exposed in the shelves of the stores.
- Yes. - Fast forward the next six months, more than a hundred cigar factories open up in Dominican Republic only. - I remember those days, yeah. - So now, and those cigar makers, they had the same opportunity. They all went to the shops because the traditional brands were nowhere to be found. - Sure. - There was a much bigger demand that they could supply. So it opened the doors to all these new brands, okay?
So now, we're in the middle of cigar boom, but I had 12 rollers, and I couldn't bring one more roller because there was not one extra pound of tobacco, the good quality tobacco that I could use because our suppliers, they have no inventory anymore. And they have to split, okay? So much goes here. My traditional customers, I mean, the supplier's traditional customer in our case was Fuente and La Flor. - You were grouped, so they gave you the pretty good credibility then on that.
- That was my supplier. He was financed by Fuente and he would supply Fuente and La Flor. So that was lot tobacco for Fuente. And Fuente didn't have cigars back then. I mean, Fuente's shipments would get to stores and they will hide it. Cigar shops will keep it for the preferred customer. You not see Fuentes in shops. So this guy would have his tobacco, but he didn't have inventory. He couldn't give me one more pound of tobacco, additional to what he was giving me.
In fact, if Don Carlos Fuente would've picked up the phone and call this guy, "Hey, listen, I know you're selling tobacco to Litto. I need that shit." I would've been out of business immediately. - Oh, sure. - I needed that tobacco for real. - Yeah, and they were selling everything. Everyone was selling everything. - Yeah, back in those days, I mean, people would go to a store, they ask for Fuente. They didn't have it, they didn't smoke. Like it was crazy.
- Must've been frustrating to one degree because here, the demand was there, but you just couldn't turn on the cash machine. - Yeah. So I spent the whole cigar boom with my 12 rollers. no growth whatsoever. - Wow, wow. - Millions of cigars on back order. We're producing 300,000 a year. - Wow. - And I needed money. We needed money. - Sure, oh yeah. - It's not like we started with a million dollars or anything close to that, okay? We set up a company like less than $150,000, okay?
And even though I'm struggling to meet payroll, but I cannot make another thousand cigars with tobacco that didn't qualify for a blend. I could not do that. - Couldn't do it, yeah. - Yeah, so we didn't grow in the whole cigar boom. We started growing in '98. Got the boom tapered down. And it was over, and the supplier of the traditional brands was coming in, in plenty of supply, okay? Plenty of quantities. So at that point, that was a big question. Who's gonna stay in the shop?
- Yeah, that's right. - Yeah, that's right. Well, you were able to, it's all staying power at that point. - So Dominican Republic, we are the only company that wasn't there 35 years ago. We're the only ones. In Nicaragua, with maybe Rocky [Patel], Abdel ["AJ" Fernandez], couple of brands at the most. - Sure. - Okay? All the other factories that were open, they're gone. - Yeah, yeah. - Okay? Everybody's gone. And why is that? Well, you know what?
We respected our blends, and we respected the people that are buying our blends and didn't take tobacco, we share cigars, we share tobacco in order to sell a few more boxes. That takes a lot of commitment, because you're making cigar to make money, or you're trying to build your name and your brand. - Yeah. - Yeah. Yeah, you kept the integrity of the brand. - To become a cigar maker. - Well, it's in it for the long haul, not the short term. - I earned a reputation.
- Yeah, yeah. - Love you, baby. (laughs) - Yeah, that's a great story. That's a great lesson, yeah. - That was what made the difference in us. All those gone, and this company's still here. - Yeah, with sustained power and what's the relationships and the integrity. - It was the respect for your name, the respect for the consumer that actually was buying, choosing your cigar. And Jorge [Padrón] and I was talking last night, right?
These brands are coming to the market, but there hasn't been a new cigar maker in a long time. - It's rare, it's rare. - Yeah. - It's still the same. - That's a different level of commitment to go open a factory and- - Yeah, yes, when you say new cigar maker opening their own factory, a lot of brands have come where people are contracting with, but they don't have their own factory vertically integrated like you guys. - Exactly. - That's a whole different animal.
- There's a lot of great factories out there that do private labels and all that. So it's much easier today- - To enter, yeah. - To start a brand. - But yeah, to open a factory, that's a whole different beast. - I'm happy this guy did it, because I don't know if I would've been able to pull that one off. - Yeah, it's amazing. It takes a level of grit. - Yeah, absolutely. - Stick-to-itiveness just to stay with it.
But it's the long term vision that you had and said, "Hey, we're in it for the long haul, not the short term" is everything. - Yeah, exactly, yeah. And I knew it was gonna take a long time. It's hard, it's hard. - Yeah. - I remember one day, I went to a place in the Carolinas to do a cigar dinner, right?
And I get on a plane, I send cigars for the dinner, get in a hotel for a couple of days to do this dinner in this place, and you do the dinner and you speak to the people that attend and everything. At then at the end of the night, they bring me the check, they bring me the bill for my dinner. - Wow. - And wait, what do you do with something like that happens, okay? Well, you can either get upset to the guy or think what I thought at the moment.
Man, I gotta work a lot harder. (laughs) I gotta work. I gotta fix this. And the only way I'm gonna fix it is just keep focusing and keep working. - Sure. - One day, it's not gonna happen. - Yeah. - You know? - So you took that as a sign that I'm not there yet. - Not there yet. Keep working, bro. - Yeah, that's right. - Keep working. - 30 years later, we have a birthday bash for you last night. And we have a hundred drinks, and I have no idea who the hell paid the tab.
We were trying to figure that out. - Oh my God, yeah. - Who paid for all that? - I went to pay the bill last night and it was taken care of. I spent some time today trying to figure out who paid for that. - Oh, that's awesome. - Well, it wasn't us. (all laughing) - So that's a good comparison. - That's amazing. - You finally made it. - Yeah, you finally made it. - That is awesome. - It's amazing. Well, that person who did it would never admit it anyway probably.
- Didn't do it for the recognition. - Yeah. - The funny thing is, I still think that I gotta keep working. - Yes. - Because, and don't let this ever trick you, you are as good as your last cigar. - That's right. - Yeah. - Don't let any of that thing go to your head, because whatever it took you to build something, it goes to shit in one minute. - You told me that. It's one lesson I always remember that you-
- That's good. - Well, you know, it's one of your stories about, I think I forget which blend it was. If it was the 2000 Series or something, I don't know. You released it and it did really, really well, and you were on a hot streak for a while, and maybe you kind of rested on your laurels just a little bit. And then it kind of started to crater. And you're like, "What the hell happened?" You realized I got comfortable. - Yeah. At first, I was finding reasons for like, 9/11, terrorism.
Now, just bullshitting myself, right? - Yeah. - So stock going down in the company. And then one day, I was looking at myself in the mirror, I said, "What the fuck you doing? You haven't done nothing in two years." - In recently, yeah, yeah. - Right. What are you doing? - Yeah. - Wake up, go back to work. Idiot. (all laughing) I'm in front of a mirror insulting myself. Right? And went back to work. Ligero come out, Double Ligero come out.
Boom. - But I always remember, every time we come out with a project and no matter how successful it is, it might have been hugely successful, but whatever, it's like a week you enjoy it, but then, what's next man? - Thinking about what's next. - Back to the grind. - Well, that was great self-critique, which a lot of people don't have the ability to do that. But you've seen over the years, you've seen some brands come in that have gotten really hot, but then they disappear. And they have issues.
They have issues with draws. They have issues with quality. They change it from what it was. They don't have the standards. And you see them all the time. I mean, I can think of one, I'm not gonna name them, but it's like, came in and was a bright star and just went out as fast as he came in. But it got complacent. - Yeah. - It is. This is a continuous work. And we cannot let our eyes out of what's important, which is the cigars we're making on the day-to-day basis, right?
- We've always had admiration for cigar makers, because it's not easy because it changes year to year. I mean, you're relying on a natural product and you're trying to keep consistency in that blend. - Yeah, a lot of moving parts. - Oh, there's a lot of moving parts. And that's what the beauty of going down and visiting the factories is you have a whole new appreciation for what goes into making a cigar. And it's amazing, okay.
They should cost $100 each after you watch the process, and the painstaking investment that it takes to get the tobacco and age it for years, and then all the hands that touch it and the packaging and everything. - Yeah, you go to a cigar factory and you start to realize how brilliant the good factories are and the good owners are, how brilliant they are, because it is not a simple operation. - Is that the same cigar that it was when you introduced it? Hasn't changed?
- That's the same cigar he is been smoking for, I don't know how many years, but like- - How many years has that been out? - Yeah, when did you come out with that one? - '97. - Oh, in '97. - So the year that you guys got started. - Yeah, it was our founding year, yeah. - I swear to God, every now and then, he lights up one of those cigars and like, I'll just like catch a little whiff and like I'm a little kid.
- It brings out the memory. - I just remember being a little kid and like, because he is always smoked, as far as I can remember. - That consistency- - It happens all the time. It's so cool. - The consistency is incredible. - Yeah, yeah. - Well, that's one of the cigars that, you know, if anything goes wrong, we know immediately. - You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're smoking a lot of them. - Do you have a backup to that? If that's your main one, do you have a second one?
- Well, anything that's Cameroon, it will always be in my preference. - Everything. - Everything that's Cameroon. - Love the Cameroon. - Yeah, what a great wrapper. - So good. - So here we are, it's 2024, now called PCA. What was your very first RTDA show? Because it was called RTDA for people that are listening and watching. The show association has changed. But what was your first year having a booth and going to the show?
- It was very interesting because people go by your booth, and they don't even look at it. I mean, it was a little tiny booth, like 8x10 or something like that. And my wife and I, we hang the flag with the name of our company and we have a few boxes there. And people would walk by, and obviously, they don't even pay attention. And I remember one day Diana- - Silvius? - Huh? - Diana Silvius? - Up Down [Cigar]? - Somehow, you know?
- Yes. - I was standing outside the little table there, and Diana comes by and looks at me. "What do you do here?" "See, our company in Dominican is our brand." "And who makes this for you?" I said, "No, no, we make it in our little factory in Dominican." "You make it? Okay. Show me what you got there." She come by. I give her my business card, right? She's looking at me like, I mean, she was busting balls all the time, especially if she knew you knew.
And she was busting balls, and yeah, she light up this cigar. Shoot. "Why did you open your factory? Why didn't you ask somebody to make the cigars for you?" "No, I don't like that. But that's a lot easier. I mean, you don't know how to make cigars. I mean, you have family in the industry." - What a stupid idea. - Yeah. - While she's smoking the cigar, she's puffing on the cigar, and she goes, "Let me tell you, young man. This cigar is fucking fantastic, okay?" And she put another.
And then as she leaves the booth, she's going around telling everybody how good La Flor cigar is. - That's great. - This is Diana. - And people listening to her. - She was legend at that time, oh yeah. - She's a legend. - There's certain people here and there that you run into that they kind of like early adopters and visionaries that see something, you know? And that reminds me of like when we first came out with the NFTs, right?
You had a list of people that you thought were gonna be the ones all over this. A lot of the bigger retailers and whatnot. And the first one goes to auction, there's bidding war, and it gets to the end. At some point, it far surpassed anything I expected these to go for. It's in the 80,000 range. And the guy I see aggressively bidding, like a guy who seems like he's not gonna be beat, I have no idea who's bidding. I have no idea who it is. And this guy ends up winning the first one.
And so immediately, I'm talking to [Jonathan] Carney. I'm like, "Carney, find out who is this guy. Find out who this is." And it's this guy, Alex Martinez. He owns a shop in New Jersey called Mane Street Cigars. And I'll be completely honest with you, I had never heard of them. I had no idea what this was. And I look into it, you know? It's a nice little shop, blue collar shop in New Jersey. It's nothing like tremendously fancy or huge or anything. And I'm like, "What the hell?
This is not what I was expecting at all." And then the second one goes to auction, and he's back in. - He's back in. - And he is, once again, will not be beat. And this guy buys the second one. And you gotta be fucking kidding me. What's going on? Who is this? - Amazing. - So unexpected. And this guy just had, he understood and he had this vision, and he's making a killing now with those cigars. And some people just- - They see it. - There's visionaries out there, they see something.
- That's right. - They surprise you. - That's amazing story. And how many of those lots did you do again? - We made seven. - Seven lots, it's been. - He had the balls to get the first two, man. - Amazing. - He would've gotten the third one too. He was trying to go for a third one, but he had like a price limit. And then after the second one, everything went above that, that floor that he set. - It went higher, yeah. - That's amazing, the story. - Yeah. - But that's it.
And then, I mean, getting Diana's in Chicago, I mean, it was like- - She's a player. - Right. - That was the shop in the country at that time is what I remember, Up Down [Cigar]. - Yep, legendary, legendary. - And then, you know, people like Robbie [Levin]. That's by the second RPDA. I mean, I already have a friendship with Carlito [Fuente], very close friendship. And Carlito would send me customers. Robbie will bring customers to our booth. Buy this brand.
- Wow. - Wayne Suarez, I don't know if you remember Wayne. - Yeah, of course I remember Wayne, yeah. - Wayne will bring customers. - Ah, then that's amazing. Good story. - They'll bring customers to us. - You were obviously making good product. because they understand what good cigars are. - Jorge Padrón would bring customers. And I'm looking at Ines [Lorenzo-Gomez] and I say, "You believe this?" - Were you friends with Robbie at that time? Were you friends with Jorge at that time too?
- I was not that, I mean, we spent time together in events like The Big Smoke. People remember it was seven, six Big Smoke. - Yeah, I remember that. - And we were in all of them. And we would hang out in all of them, okay? I had this very close friendship with Carlito in Dominican, but we were hanging out together. Robbie, Wayne. - Wayne, yeah. - They were very close with Billy O'Hara and Joe Howe.
Joe Howe, the original owner, not the original dealer, before Billy that owns Jack Schwartz in Chicago. And it was a group that we were hanging out together. And I mean, these people were helping us. They were building our company. - Weird little industry, huh? - Customers, man. - It is, isn't it? - It only happens here. - I'm going through this and I'm falling more and more in love and respect more this industry because of the kind of people that are in it.
It continued like that for many years. And there was a few cigar shops. I can name like The Cigar Merchant in Atlanta. I mean, the guy that used to own that, Todd Trahan. That guy, he saw something in us from the first year and he purchased everything that, every size that we had. And he put two of the same facings in one next to each other and give us a lot of space in shop. - And this is the most important cigar shop in Atlanta.
And you walk in the door, and the guy will take you to the La Flor Dominicana. - That's great. You need ambassadors like that, right? - Right. What happens when such a important store in the city is doing that with your brand is that he's building a number of smokers of your brand, which will go around to the other shops in the city and ask for the brand. - And ask for it. - So now, every shop in the city have to have your brand. - Yeah. - Okay?
I had a few guests in this ProCigar Festival, because we expanded the factory. You saw the difference. And there was a few people like that that were key for us at the very beginning, that trusted us as a brand that could succeed and got behind and build our brand in different cities. Some of them are not even in the business anymore, but I invited them to come because they're friends. I still communicate with them. - Yes. - I'm still in touch with them.
And they are out of the business for more than 10 years. And I keep in touch with them, and they're so fucking special to me that I wanted them to see what happened with the little company that they trusted. - That they trusted, yeah. - 30 years ago. And I invited them. And it was a small group and we had a great time. I mean, they had a great time. - That was the best ProCigar ever, man. - That was a good ProCigar. You guys did a nice job, very nice job.
- And these guys are talking to each other. I remember all times when they were in the business, some of them still in the business and some of them are not. This is not a move to sell more cigars. This is something that I will never forget those people. - You wanna show appreciation. - As long as I live. - Yes. - As long as I'm alive. And so I was so happy to have them and show them what happened, because they were so special to us. Yeah, it was a great time, a great time.
- It was a beautiful festival. - Yeah. Well, that ProCigar was meaningful. We were so thankful we were on that particular day in the tour when you surprised your dad with all the separate rooms within- - The museum tour. - Yeah, the museum within the barn, and that was really cool. - Yeah, man. - Yeah. - Most people don't know that journey that you were on from Uruguay, you touched on it when you went to Toronto, then back to Uruguay and then Miami and the businesses there.
So you talked about passion earlier, but you demonstrated that in completely discreet industries along the way, from the restaurant business into- - Jewelry. - Nightclub and jewelry and so on. So it didn't matter what it was for you at that moment, it was, and you've said this, be the best that you can be in the world. And you put all your energy behind each one as a passionate thing for you at that moment of your life. And then the final one was the cigars that kept for 30 years.
- It took him a while but- - Ongoing, yeah. - You found a good landing spot. - I found it, yeah, I found it. I found it, yeah. And Tony, I mean, even if you do nothing else for the rest of your life, you're cool with me, bro. What you did there, like man. - Yeah. - That was never, never, I mean, I'm trying to think what he's gonna do or something. I know there's a surprise, and I don't like to blow surprises. I wanna be surprised, and never, never imagined that- - You were surprised?
- I was very surprised. I was fucking moved. - Yeah. - You deserved it, man. - I was shaking. I was shaking. - You deserved it. Yeah, it's tough. What do I get this guy for his birthday? What the hell can I get him? There's very few things you could really do. It's the 70th. So I figured that's something right there. - That you were able to pull it off, knowing that you did that the night before, but you were working on this and curating all those archives and things. - Yeah, yeah.
- That's amazing. - You had people helping you obviously. - Of course, I could not- - Put it together and they had to keep it a secret at the same time and smuggle things into the farm to set up in the barn. I mean, and you did it the night before. That's orchestrated. That's like amazing that you were able to do that. The night before at ProCigar, it's not like he had nothing else to do. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - He had a little bit going. - It's a tight week, right?
- It was the only way, or else he would've seen it. It had to be a surprise. There's no other way. - Yeah, yeah. - No, it's special. - We got him good. - Yeah, you got him good. That's what you kept saying. "I got him, I got him good." - I did, yeah. Finding something that you just wanna give the best you have, whatever that is, may not be enough. But at least you give it your best shot. - Yeah, that's right. - Best of your ability. - Right, exactly, yeah. That's what it is.
I met people in my life that they just, they do shit that they like and they do give it their best. And that they find the place which is their confidence, they find it. - Yeah. All that is put to the test- - Your best, whatever it is, whatever it reaches, it can reach up there, can reach here, but you give it your best, you got no more.
- All that is put to the test when you face extreme hardship along the way and you didn't quit in those moments, you plowed through and persevered beyond measure on all them. And in the cigar, it's not like, "Hey, it was boom, cigar boom. Here we made it." No, that presented challenge in and of itself in a big way.
And then afterward, I mean, all of it just shows and demonstrates your resolve and people respect that, your employees respect that, but the other people in the industry really respect that now. And you can feel it with all of the main, everyone in this industry has such an admiration and respect because those are the people who know and understand the commitment you had through the tough time, early on. - And people respect that a lot. Like people do respect.
I remember, I mean, I was calling suppliers like the Olivas, the Perez, the big suppliers. - Sure. - Very respected suppliers. I dare to call them at the beginning. They wouldn't pick up the call. - Yeah. - Yeah. And then, okay, they don't pick up the call. Well, I gotta go to work, I gotta keep working. Don't get upset. Just gotta keep working. It was the same shit. It was the same shit like when they charged me for the dinner. You gotta keep working. One day, they're gonna pick up the phone.
And eventually, your name start to be mentioned in a good way, and then now they hear the name and then one day, they pick up the phone. And then you get access to that beautiful materials that everybody wants. But it all had to happen when you earn it. That's what it is. - Yeah, you earn it, yeah. - You earned it, and one day, they'll pick up the phone. And they'll do business with you. Why? Because now, you put the work in. And the name sounds in a good way and they wanna do business with you.
And then one day they tell you, "You know what? Doing business with you gives me a good name." - The reverse happens, right? - It's a beautiful thing. - Sure. - It's a beautiful thing, because it'd give me a good name if I buy tobacco from this guy. And one day that guy tells you, it gives me a good name if I sell you tobacco. And it's a beautiful thing that is like a mutual feel. And they can trust you in telling you how they feel about.
So I mean, so many great things have happened, and it's all just because you just stay with it. Just do your work. - Believe in it. - Yeah, yeah. - You ever have a cigar that you don't want it to end? - Oh, many times. Yeah, many times. - That's the way this interview feels. This conversation feels that way. - Uh-huh, okay. Thanks for sharing that. - I don't want it to end. It's just a beautiful thing.
- Litto wants to control every bit of quality so much that now, the boxes that you guys do and produce, the ashtrays that you, you know, all of these, some of these stories that we heard that weren't even part of the tour about you mixing up stuff in the kitchen at home or something like that for the ashtrays that you guys are doing, - The guy's ridiculous. The guy needed a vacuum chamber to suck out all the air bubbles from the resin.
And so he starts looking online to like buy one, they're pretty expensive. And he says, the funny thing to me is that, which would never occur to me, but to him, he just thinks, "Well, I'll just make one myself." Who just thinks I'm gonna make a vacuum chamber? Like build one, I don't know. How do you do that? He built one. - Yeah, on top of all the other things he's got going on. But I'm gonna figure out how to build a vacuum chamber. - Nobody, not many. - That's awesome.
- Let me tell you something. In my life, I mean, I learned there was no, in my family, I watched my grandfather, my grandmother and my father and my mother. And I never knew any other way to make a living than work your ass off. I never understood any other way. When I make a living, you go to work. - Doesn't happen without you. - In my family, my mother, my father, our family, nobody ever took a penny from the government since we immigrated to the United States.
From day one, even if you don't speak the language, whatever, you just go to work every day and you make your money, you make your living. Never heard of any other way of making a living than put your work in. - Where he grew up in Uruguay, right? Uruguay's like a very, it's like a very socialist mindset out there, right? Uruguayans are not extremely ambitious people. It's totally opposite to the America, the American mindset of like work and do something, be successful.
You guys are very content. They have enough to survive and that's just how you are. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's the mindset there, you know? And I remember, I was there some years ago, and I still have some family there on my mom's side, and they still live in the same house where she grew up, which was around the corner from where you grew up. And I remember speaking to the neighbors and it's the same neighbors that have been there for 60 years or whatever. - Been there forever.
- "Are you Litto's son? Oh my God, wow, that's unbelievable. Nice to meet you." And people tell me stories about my dad. They'd be like, "Your dad was so strange. He used to tell everybody that someday, he's gonna be really successful and rich and all these things." And everybody's like, "Nobody talks about that here." I don't know where did he get that from. He was just so weird. He would work and he'd save up and he'd buy like one nice pair of pants, like a really nice one.
He'd wear it every day. Nobody did that there. You just did what you could and you got by and that's it. And nobody had like big dreams like that. And for some reason, you just did. I don't know where it came from, but he always did. - 80% of the town work in this one factory, right? My father worked at that factory, right? My father was a, a good life guy in back in Spain. His family had money. He never worked in his life. Very good looking guy. His life was all about having fun, right?
And he met my mother. My mother from a very poor family, no education. My father's family didn't want my mother, right? But my father got married anyways, so he had three kids, right? And so they were living in my father's mother house. And father. It was not a good setup. Like they hated my mother. And my father has three kids and never worked, okay? So they were living from my grandparents, right? My mother hated that setup, right? She wasn't happy.
My mother's parents were already immigrated to Uruguay. In South America, like many Europeans back in those days immigrated to South America, Argentina, Uruguay. And so my mother finally convinced my father, put pressure on my father to immigrate to Uruguay, right? So my father goes to his father and asked him for a loan to open a business so he can support his family. And my grandfather say no to my father.
So my father had to get on a ship and immigrate to Uruguay and start working for the first time in his life with three children. - Wow. - He started to work in a factory in that town, right? And then by the time I was like eight years old, he loses his right hand in an accident at work up to here. I watched him to learn how to write with a left hand. - Interesting. - To tie his shoes with one hand, on the left one. Sometimes, he was really pissed off and cursing and really pissed off.
And I go, "Dad, what's going on? What's happening?" Say, "I'm so stupid. I can't learn fast enough." That was his problem. He was pissed at himself because he was not learning fast enough. He was not pissed at his luck in life, at his faith. He was pissed at himself, right? And I saw him, he never accepted a favor from anybody. He never stopped working. An American company, the owner of the company found a job for him that he could do, kept him as an employee.
And he worked for the rest of his life in the factory and never missed a day of work, never accepted favor, never asked anybody for money. He owned his own life. So freaking proud of himself. - Sure. - Right, I never got money from my father, but you know what? I don't know. You're from my generation. The fathers in our generation didn't hug you every day and tell you they love you, right? - That's right. - You have to figure out that they love you because of little things they do.
They wouldn't tell you they love you and hug you every day. And it was a different level of communication between dad and the son in that generation, in those times. So we had to figure it out. And so communication between my father and I is not the same. There's a lot of distance between one and the other.
But what I got from him was, just to watch him because it was not a lot of teaching also, but it was watching him and take example of what he does in his life, of who he is and how do you fall and get up and keep going. And he was my hero. Like if you wanna be somebody's hero of a child, you're gonna be his hero no matter what you do. You're gonna be his hero, right? And my dad was my hero. I learned a lot so much from him. Honesty, more than everything else. Just fucking brutal honesty.
And those are things that stay with you forever. I'm thrown in the world. I know I have to work, and I know I have to just work a lot and give it the best I have. And I started to talk about this factory because 80% of the town work at the factory, right? So we hanging out with a whole bunch of friends, little boys from the neighborhood and then the son of the owner of the factory drives in through the gate-is beautiful Ferrari. So now, I have all my friends.
So I look at this motherfucker, the guy who drives, they're exploiting us, they pay us miserable salaries. Look at the motherfucker driving this ride. And I'm not saying anything, but I'm looking at the guy and I'm thinking, this is the coolest motherfucker I've ever seen in my life. (all laughing) And I wanna be that motherfucker one day. I don't know how it's gonna happen. I wanna be him. - It's just a different mindset, right? - I don't hate.
I've never been able to hate anybody that was successful. I just fucking get so happy. I say, "God bless him." - Yeah, yeah, amen. - There was no foundation whatsoever of how will I have a dream like that-ever. Nothing that could give me a hint that I could get there. Nothing, just nothing. But the dream was there. - It wasn't your fate. You weren't supposed to. - It never went away. Never went away. - Wow. Well, it's the tale of two different perspectives on life. And take your pick, I guess.
One is, rather than looking out the window at everybody else who's causing your situation, like you did, you looked in the mirror at yourself and said, it's not about what's out the window at everybody else that's causing this for me. You looked in the mirror and it's the difference between you and the kids that are around there with that type of- - Mindset, yeah. - Mindset, yeah. - A lot of things in life are about perspective, and that changes everything. - Totally. - Yeah, yeah, that's right.
When things are good, look out the window at all the blessings that you have and the people that helped you along the way. When things are bad, look in the mirror and say, "It was me." It's me, and how do you fix that? And the opposite is the other way. When things are good, some will look in the mirror and say, "Look at how great I am." And then when things are bad, they look out the window. But it's really the flip flop that you've demonstrated in that story of that kind of perspective.
- There you go. - Yeah. - There you go. - Yeah, life is interesting. But at the end, I can tell you, with a little bit of luck and everything, I mean, I just feel blessed and I don't know that there was like, there was not a plan that I had to structure to get there, because it was not a plan. There was not a path I had to get with my machete and open my way through the jungle. But there was not a plan because it was not a road that was set to success.
So you have to build the road and see how you're gonna get to the next step. And always being careful that in the way, you just make friends. - That's right. - Yeah. - Treat people well. - Yeah. - Respect others. And it does come around. - Yeah, yeah. - Valentino [Siesto] is like friends, they're very close friends with Nestor Miranda's grandson, with Jason's [Wood's] son, Tatiana's [Miranda-Wood's] son. And you know what?
I know Nestor. She was Chivas Regal rep in Miami when I owned a liquor store. - One of the best pictures you'll ever see is of him and Nestor in the liquor store. Both like these thick mustaches and like the chest hair, the open shirts, the chains. - That was playing on- - Miami Vice guys- - Last night, was it? - Yeah, that was on there. - Was that the loop picture last night? Yes. - My father loved Nestor. Nestor will sell anything to my father.
I come to the liquor store and say, "Dad, what is all these cases of this Scotch? Nobody knows. What's it doing here?" And dad said, "No, I bought it from Miranda. He told me it's good, it was gonna sell." And then I stayed like one year with a fucking load of boxes in there. But my father loved Miranda so much. I mean, Miranda could sell anything to my father. I sold the nightclub and liquor store and then I went to a different industry-jewelry industry.
And I didn't see Miranda for like 12 years or so, right? So one day, we were at The Big Smoke in New York, and at the end of The Big Smoke, we were looking for a trolley to carry our shit out. And then I see Nestor walking by and I call him. "Yo, yo, Nestor. What are you doing here?" I say, "What are you doing here?" "Yeah, I'm selling cigars." I say, "Yeah, we're selling cigars too." (both laughing) - Wow. Ah, gosh, this is so funny. - That is awesome.
- Years go by and you keep your friendship and my daughter is just like close friends with Nestor Miranda's grandson. - That's cool, that's so cool. - That's amazing. - You have to be good to people always, and keep this good memories and this friendship. Don't ever hurt anybody, unless it's accidental or whatever, but you know. Just keep a good standing with people around you, because you never know when you're gonna find them in the future. So many stories about cases like that.
It's amazing. - For sure, yeah. - That you always find people and everything comes back to you. - It's amazing. That is pretty cool. I didn't know that. - It's a small world. - It is, very small. - It is very small world. Well, we're grateful for our friendship. - Thank you, we'll send you a transcript of this and let us know what you think so we can publish it. (all laughing) - Oh, man. - No, you guys have always been so good to us, and it's always been a fun relationship to have.
- I just wanna say like, we love you guys. - Thank you. - I think Boveda is like to us family, man. We really fucking love you guys. You guys, I just wanna congratulate you on how successful you've been and what you've created, because it's not just you guys, but like your entire company. Like I love everybody that works here, and like the culture that you guys have built here is I think something very special.
And it says a lot about you, because you have one of the best teams ever assembled in this business. - Thank you. Thank you very much. - Congrats, man. You guys are awesome. - Thank you. - And I still wanna get invited to the sales meetings. (all laughing) - Thank you. - As long as you keep telling us that we look good, we will love you forever. (all laughing) - You guys also look great too, by the way. Hope we say that enough. - Thank you. - Yeah, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
Tony, thanks. - Thank you. Thank you. - Thank you, my friend. - Thank you. (light music)