Cigar Weekly

Miami, Florida

March 31, 2010

Frank Seltzer.

General Cigar has closed its El Credito factory in Miami.  The news swept through Calle Ocho this morning like a hurricane.  Officially, the company is saying the factory is not closing, but rather being redecorated with the addition of a cigar lounge to the retail shop.  General says the facility will now be experiential for customers as some rollers remain.   

The reality is that the legendary factory will be no more.  The factory began in Little Havana in 1968 under the guidance of Ernesto Perez-Carillo, Sr.  at 11^th and Calle Ocho.  The initial factory was, in actuality, Perez-Carillo and one roller.  Over time, the factory grew cobbling adjoining storefronts together as demand increased.  Slowly, El Credito grew from making fumas for the local Miami market into hand made premium cigars. Ernesto Perez-Carillo, Jr. began helping his father in the operation in the late 70 although the factory only had less than a dozen rollers. When his father passed away in 1980, the younger Perez-Carillo took over.   

Soon he developed what would become El Credito’s well-known brand La Gloria Cubana.  Running out of room in the Miami operation,  in 1995 during the boom, Perez-Carillo moved some of his operations to the Dominican Republic. Critics of the move claimed the Miami-rolled cigars were better and would check boxes to see where the La Glorias were made.  With a just few dozen rollers, the Miami El Credito factory made around 600-thousand cigars a year.  But that was then.

Ernesto Perez-Carillo                          

Cigar Weekly File Photo

In 1999, Perez-Carillo sold El Credito to Swedish Match.  Over the years, the factory has morphed adding a more upscale showroom and store.  In 2008, the company released its Artesanos de Miami line in tribute to its craftsmen on Calle Ocho.  The cigars were a limited release and made in Miami.    

With the latest change to the old Miami factory, some of the cigars may still be made in Florida but the bulk of El Credito will continue to be made in the General Cigar factory in Santiago.

 Cigar Weekly's Roger Farnsworth (ElkTwin) profiled El Credito in August of 2006