PCA Magazine Fall 2019

PRIME CE 30 PCA The Magazine | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019 PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG CIGAR MANUFACTURING was not the only reason for Luciano Meirelles to travel to Nicaragua. Prior to partnering in the production of cigars, Meirelles served as a political consultant and was active in nonprofit work benefiting local communities. His association with Tiago Splitter, both board members of a church performing mission work, helped them further their efforts toward that goal. Traveling to Estelí, Nicaragua, provided them the opportunity to satisfy their creative and civic ambitions. “This entire cigar venture started when I went to Nicaragua the first time,” explains Meirelles. “I went to visit the country for a few different reasons. Of course I was always passionate about cigars and I wanted to visit some factories, and I had some friends there. But I wanted to see how one of the organizations I was part of could help the community there. I had this … almost like a mission … to try to help nonprofit organizations to become self-sustaining, and how to improve the economic situation of small villages. We realized that in Estelí, tobacco was the main driving economic force, so whatever we do here we have to do something related to tobacco. Having Pichardo in town was very convenient to my idea which was to create a nonprofit where all the proceeds go back to the village.” Toward that end, Meirelles conceived the idea of decentralizing the factory’s production facilities. “Instead of having a huge factory we decided to have several processing facilities all over Estelí; first to help the employees: instead of having to take transportation to work, they could work walking distance from their houses. And by putting those facilities throughout the entire city, that would create more development in those regions as well.” This resulted in streets getting repaired, and city water lines extended and connected to the houses in those neighborhoods. It was a success, and it created a model for others to emulate. To this day, Tabacalera Pichardo maintains a factory in Estelí, another on the outskirts of the city, with all the other processing facilities completely decentralized. Meirelles hastens to add that he and his partners were not alone in these humanitarian efforts, with many manufacturers in the industry doing their part to assist the community with schools, medical assistance, day-care centers and other services. “There are several companies that have this social conscience. We have a very good team in Nicaragua that cares about people.” CIGARS PLUS CIVIC ENGAGEMENT EQUALS TRUE SUCCESS A C E P R I M E