Aug./Sept. 2000 Cigar Manufacturers: Ernesto’s Ascent by Bob Ashley If only the story of every tiny Miami cigar manufacturer had as happy an ending as Ernesto Perez-Carrillo’s El Credito Cigar Co. Producer of the wildly successful La Gloria Cubana, Ernesto is busy doing what he does best - making creating cigars - with the logistical support of Swedish Match S.A. Producing Regions: What's Next from Nicaragua by Mike Jesse Estelí has firmly taken center stage as Nicaragua’s defacto cigar-making center, where a massive manufacturing shakeout has given way to a strange new reality: regrouping, and even expansion for some of the emerging survivors. Cuban Cigar Report: Habanos Gets Down to Business by E. Edward Hoyt III The 1990s were a difficult decade for nearly every aspect of the Cuban economy, cigars included. But after weathering the disappearance of Soviet funding for its agriculture infrastructure, the Cuban cigar industry is flush with cash from a new alliance with Europe’s Altadis S.A. Changes are underway, and Habanos S.A. is again setting its sights on the world market. Retailer and Tobacco Industry News SMOKESHOP's Retail and Industry news department, bringing you up-to-date information and breaking stories about manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers. Peter Stokkebye Rolls Out North American Headquarters Balmoral Cigar Now Agio Cigars USA Cigar Manufacturers Agree to FTC Health Warning Labels Hinds Brothers Adds New OTP Products to Distribution Offerings Imperial Tobacco to Buy EFKA Group La Perla Habana Expands Sales Force, Centralizes Distribution Prometheus Battles Chinese Knockoffs Alfredo Perez, Tobacco Grower, 54 Altadis Closes Both Danlí, Honduras Cigar Factories 800 JR Cigars Posts Increase in Profits, Sales in 1999 Lane Ltd. Ceases Cigar Distribution Gifts and Accessories for Cigar, Pipe, and Cigarette Smokers The Shrinking Cigar Arena: by E. Edward Hoyt III What's Happening and Where in the Tobacco Industry Trends and Trendsetters in Specialty Tobacco Retailing Products and News from the Pipe World Tobacco Products and Industry Promotions SMOKESHOP (ISSN 0146-9266), established in 1970, is published bi-monthly by Lockwood Trade Journal Co., Inc., 130 West 42nd Street, Suite 1050, New York, NY 10036 USA. Copyright © 1998 by Lockwood Trade Journal Co. Inc. HTML production and copyright © 1997-2000 by Keys Technologies. All rights reserved.