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Great People, Great Tobacco
The Plasencias grow tobacco in four different regions in
Nicaragua and three different regions in Honduras. In
addition, the family grows tobacco in Panama and Costa
Rica. When asked what he considers the key to growing
good tobacco, Nestor Plasencia offered up a secret to the
family’s successes over the years: Great tobacco is grown
by great people.
“The No. 1 thing is that we have talented team players
that work beside us,” he explains. “We’ve managed to
have a great group of people who have a passion for
tobacco in their blood and who are looking at all the little
details. If you focus on those little details from when you
put the seed in the ground to the end when the cigars are
made you will have a great product. Constantly looking
at those types of details makes our tobacco.”
The Plasencia family works very closely with its staff,
hoping to release all of the potential they have in order
to produce great products. The family offers seminars
for their employees, a daycare center within some of its
facilities and scholarships to further the education of its
staff. Plasencia acknowledges that Plasencia Cigar’s em-
ployees, from those who work in the fields and factories
to its independent farmers, all play important roles in the
company’s overall success.
“We cannot do everything by ourselves—that
would be impossible,” he says. “Especially in this
industry, the leaves are touched by more than 200
hands, from the ground to when the cigars are on the
shelves. If you can get all of these people to deliver the
best product that they can, then the results are amaz-
ing. I think we have that, and we can always learn and
improve on that aspect.”
Tobacco means
everything to
us. We owe
everything that
we have to this
beautiful plant.
Plasencia
Continued
T
The Plasencia family has been growing top-quality
tobacco for five generations. Today, Plasencia Cigars
manufactures more than 35 million handmade cigars
each year and grows tobacco on 3,000 acres in several
locations, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica
and Panama. It has the distinction of having produced
popular cigars for many well-known labels, including
Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Ventura Cigar, Padilla,
Villiger and Alec Bradley. After decades devoted to
making memorable cigars for other companies, the
family has launched their very own brand: Plasencia
1865.
Tobacco Business
recently sat down with CEO
Nestor Andrés Plasencia to discuss his family’s deep roots
in the tobacco industry and their new brand that helps
to affirm the family’s legacy and dedication to tobacco.
The History
The Plasencia family’s long affair with tobacco began in
1865, when Eduardo Plasencia began growing tobacco
in Cuba. Three decades later, his nephew, Sixto Plasen-
cia Juárez, helped expand the business to open farms in
Cuba’s Vuelto Abajo region. His son, Sixto Plasencia Pe-
rez, and his brothers continued the tradition. In 1965,
the family moved from Cuba to Nicaragua as a result of
the Cuban revolution; 13 years later they had to move
again due to the Nicaraguan revolution. Despite having
to start over twice, the Plasencias remained devoted to
their cigar-making heritage.
“Tobacco is involved in every aspect of our lives,”
asserts Nestor Plasencia, Sixto Plascencia Juárez’s great-
grandson and one of the world’s most well-regarded
cigar makers. “Tobacco means everything to us. We owe
everything that we have to this beautiful plant.”