66 TOBACCO BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER | 22 of his family have worked in the tobacco business to some degree. At one point, his father had launched his own cigar brand named El Rey. Almonte himself really wanted to become a baseball player, but he admits he wasn’t very good at it and decided to work with his father in the tobacco industry at an early age. His father was not alone in his love for cigars; manymembers of Almonte’s family found work in the industry. “We have over 68 familymembers that knowhow tomake cigars,”Almonte says proudly. “In the family, at least one family member has worked in one of the cigar factories we have in the country.” Tobacco is theonlybusiness and industryAlmontehas everworked in, and at this point he proclaims that cigars run through his blood. After working with his father for several years, Almonte worked in the Arturo Fuente and La Flor Dominicana factories, giving him even more experience and insight into the cigar business and what it takes to make cigars. When his time at La Flor Dominicana came to an end, Almonte found himself at a professional crossroads and asked a simple, but daunting, question: what’s next? It didn’t take him long to find his answer: he wanted to create his own cigar brand and company, something that would continue his family’s long legacy with tobacco. Both his father and an uncle-in-law had launched their own brands in the past. Now Almonte was ready to step up to the plate and take a swing at creating one of his own. When it came to choosinganame forhis owncigar brand, Almontewanted the one he chose to reflect his country and background. “We’re Dominican Big Leaguer. People think it’s related to baseball—no, no, no. What I want to show people is how big we are in the two biggest things that we do in the DominicanRepublic: cigars and baseball. Those are the two big things we do in the Dominican Republic; it’s our passion. That’s why I came up with the name Dominican Big Leaguer—because we are big in the cigar business,” Almonte explains. DBL Cigars was launched in 2013, and being a new brand owner, Almonte became the recipient of a lot of advice. Some questioned the name he had chosen for his company. Others told him they didn’t think he should even start his own tobacco business. The advice that mattered the most to him came from his father, who Almonte has always had a lot of respect for and has served as a mentor to him from a young age. Where others doubted Almonte’s decision to create his own cigar brand, his father did the exact opposite. “My dad always encouraged me to do it better and better. He always said that the whole family knew how to make cigars. But his philosophy was to make it better. He’s always wanted to do the best and to be the best in the room. Now this is my philosophy: Keep doing better. In life, there’s always a way to do it better.” Present andFuture Investments Early on, Almonte came to the realization that the more control he had over his company’s product, the better. That’s why he opened his first cigar factory in March 2013. Last August, he opened a new factory in Tamboril. When describing the new factory, Almonte declares that it is “10 times bigger than the other one.” In addition to being bigger, the new factory has the capability of producing even more cigars—up to 2 million a year. Even though the factory has the ability to produce more cigars, what Almonte is most concentrated on is the factory’s workers. He’s careful how he describes these important people, and rather than using the term “employment,” he describes how the factory is “sponsoring” the employees. What does that mean? It’s ensuring every employee is taken care of and has the opportunity to prosper while they’re working for him and even when they choose to retire. In addition to sending employees to college, he’s implemented a retirement plan—among other initiatives—to help better the lives of those that help DBL Cigars become a better company. “I’m working on 401(k)s. Why? Because after 40-45 years of working as a cigar roller, they retire and only get about $200 permonth. This is not a good retirement. They have to keep working because they can’t get by with the money they get. So I’mworking on 401(k)s,” Almonte shares. “I want to give them 401(k)s so that when they retire, they can have a better life.” Almonte isn’t only concerned with making life better for his employees after they retire. Another amenity he’s been working on for those that work in the factory is an on-site daycare. Slated to open in 2023, the aim of the daycare is to go well beyond just taking care of the factory workers’ children. Instead, he wants education to be the focus of the daycare and to educate them at an early age so that these future generations will have even more opportunities as they grow up. Almonte has no problem investing in things that matter to the business, like his employees. Making sure salaries are competitive and fair is something Almonte focuses on as a business owner. He wants his employees to feel like they are part of a family, that they matter and wants to reward them for their contributions to the DBL Cigars brand and its success. Another area he’s invested in is in the material and resources needed to sustain and grow his brand. One year after he launched his company, he started to grow his own tobacco. This was another area where Almonte received a lot of advice, most of it encouraging him not to become a tobacco grower. Consistency is the foundation of a quality product, and Almonte realized soon after launching DBL that it’s very difficult to buy tobacco year after year that’s not drastically different due to growing conditions, the weather and other factors. The more inconsistent the quality of the In 2013, Francisco Almonte launched DBL Cigars, a boutique cigar brand manufactured in Tamboril, Dominican Republic.
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