Drew Estate is one of the most famous cigar brands ever, and dominates a large percentage of tobacco sales today, even though the company was started only twenty years ago. Drew Estate was started in 1998 by Jonathan Drew and Marvin Samel, who lived in New York City at the time, and had a small boutique that sold cigars in downtown New York City.
Experiencing declining sales and interest in cigars in the American market, Jonathan Drew moved to Esteli, Nicaragua, with the hope of starting the “rebirth of cigars.” While in Nicaragua, one of the cigar hubs of the world, Drew obsessed over making new, exciting cigar blends that could bring flavors and experiences never before seen in the American market. After a year or so of meticulously perfecting his cigar blends, Drew returned to the United States and launched what would become the company’s signature cigar line, ACID Cigars.
The company grew and grew because of the wildly popular ACID line, which was a completely unique set of flavor profiles for the cigar market. By 2004, the company had expanded so much that they moved their headquarters from New York City to Miami, Florida to help continue grow the expanding company. In 2007, the company opened one of the largest cigar manufacturing plants in the entire world, which was 96,000 square feet.
This state of the art factory helped to maximize the company’s production, and helped Drew Estate to become a wildly popular brand in the cigar market. Through innovation and perseverance, Jonathan Drew and Marvin Samel were able to start one of the most innovative and popular cigar brands in the entire world.
This story is a great example of being open to change. When they saw that their model wasn’t working, they moved locations and tried something else. It also wasn’t an instant success, but took time to become successful. I think it’s a great reminder that a successful business takes a lot of time and effort and sometimes your first idea isn’t your best one.