Hassle- free gift idea for Father's Day -- Camacho Cigars

Camacho Cigars has the perfect gift to fit any budget, the hip choice for Dad this year... The Camacho Torpedo Maduro Cigar is a full flavored blend. The look, feel and undeniable richness of this cigar leaves anyone who smokes it totally enamored with the experience it provides. 

Celebrity Dad's such as Marc Anthony and Hank Baskett are fans of the Camacho Collection.

The Camacho Torpedo Cigars can be sold single for $13 or in a full 21-piece gift-set for $274.

History of Camacho Cigars

From the Bay of Pigs to the mountains of Honduras…

Camacho and its producers play an important role in the history of the cigar. The brand was founded in Miami, in 1961, by Simon Camacho. In 1995, it was acquired by Caribe Imported Cigars, a company owned by the Eiroa family, originally from Cuba but now active in the USA and in Honduras. In October 2008, Camacho became part of the Oettinger Davidoff Group.
The Camacho story begins in 1961, the year in which Simon Camacho, forced into exile from Cuba, opened a factory in Miami and set about making cigars using tobacco of Central American provenance. His brand soon also gained an excellent reputation beyond the shores of the USA. Among its aficionados was the legendary British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, after whom Camacho had named one of its formats.
In 1995, five years after the death of its founder, Camacho was acquired by the Eiroa family.

The Eiroa Family

The Eiroa family has been growing tobacco since the early 1900’s. First, Generoso Eiroa, in Cuba but in the wake of the Castro revolution and subsequent nationalization of the tobacco plantations, his widow and three sons were forced to leave the country without a penny to their name and settled in Tampa, Florida. Julio Eiroa joined the Bay of Pigs invasion attempt as one of a force of Cuban exiles with the US Army. While his brother, Generoso Jr. worked in Nicaragua, Julio travelled to Honduras in 1963 on behalf of tobacco dealer Angel Oliva. There, as part of a government project, he laid the foundations for today’s extensive tobacco plantations belonging to the Eiroa family.
After his first year with the Oliva Family, Julio Eiroa decided to become an independent farmer. A decision that would prove to be one to change the history of tobacco growing in Honduras. Julio Eiroa year after year, would buy the government tobacco farms. Through commercial partnerships with companies such as Bering Cigars and US Tobacco, he would become the world’s largest Candela (the green leaf) tobacco farmer by 1972.

Foundation of Caribe Imported Cigars

In the 1980s, Eiroa returned to the USA and in 1987 began to build up Caribe Imported Cigars in Miami. The company produced two popular cigar brands: “Baccarat” and “National Brand”. These were later joined by a so-called cafeteria-cigar by the name of “Don Felo”, that sold for 20 cents, and in 1992 by “La Fontana”. In those days, production totalled around 2–3 million cigars a year and grew massively in the subsequent cigar boom years of the 1990s. The year 1995 saw the acquisition of Camacho Cigars by the Eiroa family, accompanied by the transfer of tobacco production for this brand from Nicaragua to Honduras.

Camacho becomes an important player

In 1998, Julio’s 26-year-old son Christian, who had gained his know-how and first experience on the family plantations in Honduras, became President of Caribe Imported Cigars. By the turn of the millennium and with the launch of the highly successful Camacho Corojo, the Eiroa family and their ventures had undoubtedly joined the leading players in the US cigar industry.

Flagship with premium products

The flagship Camacho brand is produced at Danli (Honduras) and is made up of series such as “Corojo”, “Connecticut”, “Criollo”, “Diploma”, “Select”, “SLR” and “Triple Maduro”. In addition to Camacho, the company’s product portfolio also includes “Baccarat* ‘The Game’” (Caribe’s bestseller), “Baccarat* Dominican”, “Don Felo”, “Don Macho” “La Fontana”, “La Fontana Consigliere”, “LegendArio”, “National Brand” and “The Repeater”,.
* “Baccarat” available only in The Americas

Camacho and the Eiroa family

The Eiroa family plays a central role in the history of the tobacco industry in Central America. Its most prominent member is the Cuban exile Julio Eiroa. His father Generoso, from Galicia, Spain, entered the tobacco business in the early 1900s.
Like many of the Cuban exiles from the tobacco business who had left their homeland in the wake of the 1959 Castro revolution, Julio Eiroa’s family built a new life for themselves in the USA. And like many tobacco growers, they also made use of Florida as a platform for their next move to Central America where, with extensive plantations in Honduras, they laid the foundations on which the family business would enjoy a splendid future.

Exile after the revolution

From the early 1900’s until nationalisation by the Cuban revolutionary government, the founder of the dynasty, Generoso Eiroa, grew various tobaccos – including a popular sand-coloured wrapper leaf – in the San Luis district of Cuba. It was there, on 11 January 1938, that Julio Eiroa was born, who was later to found Tabacos Rancho Jamastran and Caribe Imported Cigars. At the end of 1957, he left his homeland for the first time and in January of the following year took employment as an odd job man in the Perfecto Garcia Factory in Tampa that had been one of his family’s customers for forty years. On New Year’s Day 1959, Julio returned to Cuba. The revolution, however, failed to bring the hoped-for changes and in 1960 the entire family emigrated, “just for one summer”, as Julio recalls. It turned out to be a long summer: the Eiroas have never returned home to this day.

Mission Honduras

In 1963, Angel Oliva, one of Florida’s biggest tobacco dealers, sent Julio Eiroa to Honduras as part of a government-sponsored cultivation project. There, he developed unconventional solutions to overcome the problems he encountered on the “Rancho Jamastran”. To address the shortage of workers, he made use of compulsory labour by the inmates of the local jail. These proved to be more willing and more loyal than the local agricultural workers, who, with their frugal, self-sufficient lifestyle, saw no reason to work for money. To motivate them, Eiroa set up his factory shops where his employees could use their wages to buy everyday goods imported from the USA that were otherwise unavailable in Honduras.

Emergency landing and wheelchair

In the 1970s, Julio Eiroa owned the largest plantations of dark air-cured tobacco and Candela wrapper leaves. The entrepreneur always aimed for the skies, not just in his business life but also in his leisure time. He invested in an air transport company with six aircraft and acquired a pilot’s license himself. In September 1977, at the pinnacle of his business success, he sustained a spinal injury in an emergency landing with his private Cessna, which left him with a mobility impairment.

A foray into the dairy business

The severe accident failed, however, to put a damper on Julio Eiroa’s resolve or on his thirst for action. In order to safeguard the future of his children Justo, Enita and Christian, at that time just eleven, eight and five years old, he pursued new ventures and became involved for a while in the tobacco wholesale business and in a dairy project, with varying degrees of success, before returning finally to his original love and great passion. He became involved with Tabacalera Panamerica TAPANSA and produced the first cigars of his own in the form of “Baccarat ‘The Game’”, “Montoya”, “National Brand” and “Repeater” in 1987.

Back to Rancho Jamastran

After many years of ups and downs, Julio Eiroa had almost attained his goal. He grew his own tobacco, used it to produce his own cigars and owned the company responsible for the distribution in the United States, Europe and other countries around the world. With the purchase of Rancho Jamastran in 1987, together with all the disused installations from the project that had been the subject of his first mission in Honduras, he fulfilled his dearest wish. It was on this land that he set up today’s Campo Camacho and the Corojo Farm.

Succession safeguarded

Julio’s youngest son Christian returned to Honduras after completing his studies in 1995 with a Master in International Business Administration. Following a familiarization phase, he was given responsibility for purchasing and production during the major boom in the cigar industry in the 1990s. After the boom subsided, Christian returned to the United States to undergo further training in sales and distribution and then ensured that the turnover of the family company was able to withstand market pressure. Today, Christian Eiroa is President of Camacho Cigars in the USA and oversees the cigar production from five hundred acres of Corojo Seed wrapper leaves at home in Honduras. Julio and Christian Eiroa are convinced that it is these wrapper leaves that make the Camacho cigars stand out from all others of Honduran provenance.
With effect from 1 October 2008, Camacho Cigars has been part of the Swiss Oettinger Davidoff Group. Julio Eiroa has withdrawn from the operative business and concentrates on managing the plantations. Christian Eiroa remains President of Camacho Cigars.

Milestones

1960 –– The Eiroa family leaves Cuba and settles in Florida (Tampa).
1961 –– Simon Camacho opens the first cigar factory in Miami.
1987 –– Julio Eiroa founds Caribe Imported Cigars in Miami.
1987 –– The Eiroa family buys Rancho Jamastran and produces the first cigars of his own in the form of “Baccarat ‘The Game’”, “Montoya”, “National Brand” and “Repeater”.
1992 –– Caribe expands its product portfolio with the “La Fontana” cigar.
1995 –– The Eiroa family acquires the Camacho brand five years after the death of its founder.
1998 –– Christian Eiroa (26) becomes President of Caribe Imported Cigars.
2000 –– Release of the “Camacho Corojo”; final push to become a major player in the industry.
2008 –– 1 October: acquisition of Camacho by the Oettinger Davidoff Group