56 TOBACCO BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER | 22 Anthony “Tony” Serino entered the cigar industry soon after selling his South Florida video rental store business nearly 30 years ago. With the money he made from the sale of his business, Serino decided to launch a new business based on his passion: cigars. Serino started off his new tobacco business by purchasing cigars in the Little Havana neighborhood and then reselling them to shops throughout Miami. Keep in mind, this was long before the internet and a time when much business was done with the assistance of a phonebook. Early on, Serino became a liaison between retailers and Little Havana’s cigar manufacturers. His new tobacco business began to grow and evolve from there. Serino was not yet content with just purchasing and reselling cigars. Next, he opened his own cigar lounge and store named My Cigar Club. Becoming a tobacconist helped Serino build new connections throughout the cigar industry that included cigar manufacturers and factories in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Serino continued to play with his business model and started to create his own brands and bundles that he sold as regional releases throughout Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. During this time, Serino’s son, Carson, also started to become more involved in his family’s business. While in middle school, Carson would help out at APS Distributors, his father’s distribution company. In the warehouse, Carson would assist in getting orders packed and shipped out. APS Distributors, named after Anthony Philip Serino, had launched in the mid-2000s and not only distributed premium cigar brands but also helped retailers to connect and contract with manufacturers to make house blends for their stores. In college, Carson Serino studied entrepreneurship and marketing in addition to having a minor in art history. Carson’s time spent in the retail store and in the warehouse around many different premium cigar brands influenced his career and professional interests and would ultimately serve as a launchpad for his future role within Serino Cigar Co. “That wasmy favorite thing fromgrowing up in the retail store: hearing all the different stories, the heritage and all the underpinnings of each brand,” Carson explains. By the time he graduated, Serino was excelling at the bundle value business and alsowas doingwell at helping other cigar businesses grow their brands. It was at this point that Carson presented an idea to his father: Why not use all of the expertise and knowledge gained over the years running a retail business and distribution company to launch a Serino-branded cigar brand? Serino Cigar Co. launched in 2016 as the premiumdivision of Serino’s cigar brand. They contracted with La Corona Factory in Estelí, Nicaragua, to help it manufacture its cigars. With the help of La Corona’s owner, Omar González-Alemán, the Serino Royale was blended and helped to launch the Serino family into a new chapter. BuildingonExperience Creating a cigar requires a lot of trial and error, Carson explains. It also comes down to who you work with. In addition to working with La Corona Cigars, the Serino family also enlisted the help of Jochy Blanco’s Tabacalera Palma when it came time to develop and manufacture its Taíno line. Good cigars aren’t good without access to quality aged tobacco. Good tobacco is the result of a multistep process that starts with good growing conditions that impact the overall quality of the crop. Then the quality of tobacco depends on the fermentation and aging process and the aging the cigar undergoes after being rolled. “We don’t just pack cigars and ship them out. We wait at least a minimum of three months, and we rarely do that. It’s always like six months to a year after the roll that we send our cigars out,” Carson explains. When making a cigar, the Serinos have learned the value of doing things in a more traditional manner, and that means they don’t cut corners. “Being very thorough with the process and having a good crop and good people A Carson Serino has long been involved in his father’s various tobacco businesses, including his distribution company, APS Distributors and Serino Cigar Co., a premium cigar brand.
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