This news alert comes courtesy of David Savona at Cigar Aficionado and was originally published on CigarAficionado.com on 17 February 2010.

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Chiusano Out at Cusano Cigars

Michael Chiusano, the president of DomRey Cigar Inc., a unit of Davidoff and the maker of the Cusano and Cuvée cigar brands, left the company he founded in 1995.

“I am no longer with the company,” Cusano said over the phone this morning, reading from a prepared statement. “I have chosen to pursue interests outside of DomRey. I wish the company the best of luck. I have no further comment.”

DomRey is a firmly entrenched player in the bargain and middle price point segments of the premium cigar industry. The company had sales of five million cigars in 2008.

Chiusano, a former pension fund manager, took a trip to the Dominican Republic in 1995 and brought home a handful of unbanded Dominican cigars he had enjoyed on his trip. He made up his own cigar band using letterhead from his financial company and handed one to David Garafalo, owner of Two Guys Smoke Shop. Chiusano (whose name is pronounced “coo-zahn-oh”) entered the cigar business, and survived the fallout from the end of the cigar boom and prospered.

DomRey had many innovations in the cigar business, bar coding all of its cigars, for example, and targeting cigar shops with a phone sales team from Bradenton, Florida. And it won smokers over by charging a value price for its product.

“If you look at our very loyal fan base, it’s the everyday smoker, not the weekend warrior,” Chiusano said in 2008. “They say price is what you pay, value is what you get. You don’t have to pay a lot to get great stuff.”

In June 2009, Oettinger Davidoff Group, the owner of the Davidoff and Avo cigar brands, acquired Cusano Cigars for undisclosed terms.

An executive at Davidoff of Geneva headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, said all comment on the matter had to come from Dr. Reto Cina, the head of Davidoff. Cigar Aficionado was awaiting comment via email, which, due to time differences in Europe, wasn’t expected until Thursday at the earliest.

This is a breaking story, and Cigar Aficionado will get more information on the ground in Santiago, Dominican Republic, as it develops.

Just announced today in the St. Petersburg Times, we have some interesting (and positive!) economic news: Davidoff USA is opening a new US HQ in Pinellas Park, FL.

According to the article, Davidoff will begin hiring about 90 people within the next six months at an average wage of around $55,000.00 to mostly work in the front offices or warehouse. The legendary cigar maker will take over a recently vacated 100,000 square-foot-plus site that will jointly house the offices and warehouse.  In what Mayor Bill Mischler hails as “a huge win for the city of Pinellas Park,” Davidoff is bringing new jobs and nearly $10 million in capital investments to a storied area in US tobacco history that has been battered by the recession.

Due to the recession, Tampa Bay’s cigar industry has seen the closing of the Seffner (Hav-A-Tampa, under the Altadis umbrella) plant which left 500 people unemployed.  As of December 2009, Tampa’s unemployment rate stood at 12.4%, but it won’t sit at that rate for long thanks to Davidoff.  As part of the deal to lure the Swiss tobacco giant to Florida, State and Local government have agreed to give Davidoff $3,000 tax refunds per job as part of the Qualified Target Industry Program and an impressive additional $325,000 from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund.

Kudos to Davidoff for creating jobs and opportunities in such a sour economic situation and all in the name of cigars!