Claudio Sgroi and Oscar Barreda Collaborate To Elevate Quality and Expand Global Reach of Barreda Cigars
Accomplished tobacco veteran Claudio Sgroi, owner of CST Consulting, and Oscar Oswaldo Barreda Lazo, owner of BARREDA CIGARS S.A. (Cigar Factory), announced a collaboration to improve quality controls and blends, to build a new marketing and sales strategy and international distribution.
“This is a beautiful collaboration with Oscar and his family to push Barrreda cigars to the highest level of blending techniques and quality controls,” said Claudio Sgroi. “They are investing a lot into the factory to grow exponentially,” Sgroi added.
“In the last few years, we have invested significantly, achieving great development in all areas, from planting, curing houses, and pre-industry to cigar production. We are ready to show our family brands and services to third parties worldwide,” said Oscar Barreda, President of Barreda Cigars S.A. “What a better way to do it in collaboration with our friend Claudio Sgroi” Barreda added.
“The Barreda cigar team is excited about this new stage of growth together with Claudio Sgroi. This year our main objective is to introduce our brands in the United States and European markets,” said Jennifer Barreda, General Manager of Barreda Cigars S.A. “We want to give access to our brands to more consumers worldwide,” Jennifer added.
Claudio Sgroi and Oscar already worked to improve all quality controls at the factory located In Estelí́-Nicaragua, improving the blend of Don Chico cigars and structuring a marketing and international distribution strategy. They set up procedures to produce private labels as well.
Barreda Cigars produces the following proprietary brands:
Don Chico Maduro, Habano, and Connecticut: Toro 6×54, Robusto 5×54, and Chairman 6×60
O21: Toro 6×52, Robusto 5×50, and Chairman 6 x 60
Cocktail: Robusto 5×54, and petit robusto 4×48
All cigars are handmade with the best Nicaraguan fillers grown at the family’s farm and using different wrappers from Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Mexico. The cigars are expected to be available in the USA starting in May 2023 and in Europe in the following months.
ABOUT CLAUDIO SGROI:
Claudio Sgroi is a renowned Master Blender with more than twenty years of experience in the tobacco and cigar industry. He began his career in 2001 in the Dominican Republic, alongside Hendrik Kelner of Davidoff. He had increasingly important assignments in Dominican Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Nicaragua, and the United States, where he acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the industry and processes, including agronomic processes, blending, production of cigars, marketing, and international sales. In 2011 he joined Mombacho Cigars as a Consultant where he designed and implemented new vitolas, successful blends, an effective quality assurance system, as well as complete re- dimensioning of logistics and operations. He led the renovation of Casa Favilli, a historical monument in Granada that served as the Mombacho cigar factory. In April 2021 he founded CST Consulting, a tobacco industry consulting company and In January 2020 he was elected President of the Nicaragua Tobacco Chamber (CNT).
ABOUT BARREDA CIGARS:
Barreda Cigars S.A. is a family-run business, one of the few 100% Nicaraguan companies in the tobacco industry. It has been growing tobacco since 1970; the legacy started with the grandfather, Don Francisco Barreda, who developed his taste for the fields due to his established friendship with Cubans who had settled in Estelí́. He dedicated his small farm to planting tobacco, quickly making it his favourite hobby. His grandson, Oscar Barreda, converted that passion into a business, giving rise to Barreda Cigars. The company has made the production of cigars not only a profession but also an art that is the driving force of family pride and a tribute to the land where they were born. In this way, they produce a cigar that satisfies beginners to experienced smokers and tobacco connoisseurs. For nine years, Barreda Cigars has offered a variety of the finest cigars to the world while also contributing to the generation of employment for inhabitants of the area. Every cigar produced is made up of tobacco from the best regions of Nicaragua, which has been given special treatment during the curing and fermentation process to enhance the flavours that characterize their brands.
