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Caldwell Cigar Company and Lost & Found Cigars Join Laudisi Enterprises
Smokingpipes is pleased to announce that as of this morning, 3/1/24, Laudisi Enterprises has acquired boutique cigar companies Caldwell Cigar Co. and Lost & Found Cigars. Robert Caldwell and Juan Jaramillo, co-founders of Caldwell Cigar, will join Laudisi as shareholders and as part of the management team, responsible for Laudisi's new Caldwell Cigar Co. division.
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s many readers of the Daily Reader no doubt know, Smokingpipes is part of a larger pipe and pipe tobacco (and now cigar) company that also includes Laudisi Distribution Group, a U.S. distributor of pipes and pipe tobacco; pipe tobacco manufacturer Cornell & Diehl; and Kapp & Peterson, which includes the august pipe factory in Dublin, Ireland.
Smokingpipes of course came first. That's the business I established in 2000. But, as we've found our way through the pipe and tobacco world over the last 24 years, we've been approached many times to do things that furthered our original mission of being the best pipe and pipe tobacco retailer in the world. During the past dozen years, while Smokingpipes has remained the single largest part of the business, Laudisi has evolved from a retailer to a collection of interrelated companies dedicated to serving hobbyist pipe smokers and collectors.
And as Smokingpipes' cigar business has expanded, particularly over the past three or four years, we've built the sort of relationships we have in the pipe and pipe tobacco industries with the cigar industry. And that led to a phone call between Shane Ireland — Laudisi's well-known VP for Retail and head of Smokingpipes — and Robert Caldwell. Robert wasn't necessarily looking to sell his company and we weren't really looking to buy a cigar company, but the more they talked, the more they realized it might be a really good fit. And so, even though it felt like a bit of a departure for us — and we were perhaps an unlikely buyer for their business — we began exploring the possibility.
Before long, we were all hanging out until 3:00 a.m. talking about how to cut wrapper leaf for different cigar shapes, how to grade briar in a pipe factory, and what exactly a "turn" is when fermenting a barrel of Perique. We quickly discovered that Robert and Juan were just as enthusiastic and just as serious about what they do as we are about what we do. Robert was selecting which cigars I should try as I embarked on a quest to reacquaint myself after a decade-long hiatus from cigars, while Shane was turning a lifelong cigar smoker into someone who was also a pipe guy.
Shane Ireland and Robert Caldwell inspecting vintage French pipes
Throughout this period, we insisted that the idea of combining the companies made sense only if Robert and Juan came along, both as shareholders and as members of the management team. And Robert and Juan insisted that they wanted to sell the company in a situation that would let them take off their small-businessmen hats and focus on the parts of their jobs that they truly loved. For all concerned, we were aligned from the beginning: we wanted what Robert and Juan had to offer Laudisi and Robert and Juan wanted what we had to offer Caldwell.
Robert Caldwell, Juan Jaramillo, and Hernando Caicedo founded Caldwell Cigar Co. in 2014. Robert had been kicking around in the cigar business for a few years by then. The dynamic of close, enthusiastic friends pouring themselves into the endeavor provided much of the energy that launched Caldwell Cigars. They had no distribution or marketing; they simply visited tobacco shops and talked with cigar enthusiasts, building enthusiasm for their nascent project along the way.
From the beginning, it was clear that they were onto something. They'd done something fresh and new with cigars, blending complex, sophisticated cigars and packaging and presenting them in radically new ways. For these guys, better wasn't gold foil and heavily lacquered boxes. Better was completely reimagining the sort of artwork that could sit around the cigar. And the response was extraordinary.
Robert always insists that he and Juan aren't cigar industry people. As he puts it, "We've been a company that hasn't really paid attention to what's gone on around us. We just truck forward in our own way." On the one hand, that's sort of crazy coming from someone who has spent his entire adult life in and around cigars. On the other, that sentiment very much resonates with me.
When I started Smokingpipes back in 2000 — and indeed for the first decade-plus of its existence — while I treasured pipes and pipe tobacco, and the traditions that went into them, I wanted to do things in radically new and different ways. I very much wasn't "an industry person," to adopt Robert's language: I was a guy who deeply loved pipes and pipe tobacco and thought there might be a better way to communicate that love for pipes to my fellow pipe smokers.
Robert's journey is similar: A deep and abiding love for cigars absent an established industry mindset meant that he just made cigars he loved and marketed and sold them in ways he thought would be cool and would resonate with his fellow cigar smokers. And he made an amazing company — and a lot of amazing cigars — along the way.
That vision has been as attractive to cigar enthusiasts as to us here at Laudisi. They were our kind of people, and we're enormously pleased to now call them our colleagues. Smokingpipes has always been primarily involved in pipes and pipe tobaccos, but our love is for all premium tobaccos. We think Caldwell and Lost & Found cigars complement our mission beautifully and will be spectacular sister companies to Smokingpipes.
For more information, the press release about Laudisi and Caldwell Cigar Co. may be found on our corporate website.
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Comments
HmmWell, to paraphrase a favorite quote from a favorite British comedy troupe...And now, for something maybe not so quite different.In blending ingredients for my Lat-forward English blends, I'd always favored a nice percentage of cigar leaf. And over the years, I've smoked cigars (favoring Villiger Export Maduro) when a pipe would be inconvenient.Perhaps...just perhaps...I may be widening my horizon in the future...
This is very exciting news. Two great companies with similar but very different offerings come together and establish a one stop shop of both cigars and pipes. The rebirth of pipe smoking is just beginning. On a side note. I’m hoping someone recognizes the amazing artistic abilities of Giangi Louigi Fiori at the Peterson’s of Dublin shop in Ireland. I have seen his work and it’s nothing short of amazing. For him to be given an opportunity to design tabacco tin art or cigar labels would be a huge win for your new company. His passion for pipes and tabacco along with his artistic prowess could be an awesome combination very similar to your new merger. Looking forward to your future success. Roger MayerA big fan!
Sounds like a great move and venture, can’t wait to see all that this brings!