Go Back   Cigar Weekly Community Forums and Discussion Groups > Smoking Post > Cigar Talk

Cigar Talk A place for cigar enthusiasts to discuss our hobby, legal cigars and related stuff.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-11-2015, 11:55 AM   #1
TommyBB
Editor-in-Chief
Herf God
 
TommyBB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 1998
Location: Metairie, LA
Posts: 86,603
Estelo Padron Dies.

cA is reporting this, today.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregory Mottola of cA
The cigar industry has lost another one of its great tobacco men. Cigar veteran Estelo Padrón passed away on Monday morning, February 9, at Coral Gables Hospital in Florida near Miami. He was 87 years old.

"It's a big loss for all of us," said his nephew Jorge Padrón, president of Padrón Cigars. "We are a united family and this is, of course, very sad."

He was best known in the premium cigar industry for his production management of Villazon's HATSA (Honduran-American Tobacco S.A.) factories in Honduras, where he oversaw all aspects of tobacco production, from blending to bulking to fermentation. He also was in charge of development and production of the non-Cuban Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey brands.

Born in Cuba in 1927, Estelo expatriated to Spain in 1969 before his brother, Padrón company patriarch Jose Orlando Padrón, brought Estelo from Spain to Nicaragua that same year. Estelo joined the Padrón family cigar business and stayed on until 1971. Shortly after, he moved to Honduras to join Villazon and its HATSA factories. At Villazon, he managed all aspects of cigar production and was instrumental in maintaining the quality and consistency of Villazon's flagship brands: Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey.

Estelo eventually gained a financial stake in Villazon, along with owners Daniel Blumenthal and Frank Llaneza. In 1998, General Cigar Co. acquired Villazon and its factories. With the acquisition, Estelo became general manager. He was promoted to vice president of Villazon in 2004 and finally retired in 2009.

"Estelo was already there by the time I came along in 1980," said Sherwin Seltzer, retired vice president of trade development for General Cigar. "He was a character, and I liked him a lot. But he ran the factory with an iron fist and was a terrific tobacco man."

***SNIP***

"Estelo was a great person and dedicated to his craft as well as to his family," said his brother José Orlando Padrón (translated by his son Jorge). "He was a great family man. That is how were all brought up."

Estelo Padrón leaves behind a wife, daughter and two grandchildren.

"There is only one way to make our cigars," Estelo is known to have said. "The nineteenth century way."
__________________

+In Memory of E.Guevara(Cubano67)W.Orlando(Shadow) A.Morris (Knife) D.Odom (dodom) D.Revermann (dgr) S.Bouchard (sb1396) M.Cole (Matt76) S.Faccenda (TOJE) R.Smith(IBMer) V.Vandermeer (van55)M.Davis(boxdoctor)S.Singer(bassman)K.Doetze l (drillrk1)D.Hart(garme1962)J.Coleman(John C 81)T.Gossett(Dartplayer1)J.Bolt (jb)E.J.Ferralles(CaballoPinto)M.Cataldo(FVFanMC)K Payne(SanchoPanza)F.Seltzer(Mowee)+LB+Connor Olson+Micah Kercheval+Maggie Bonefas+Karen


TommyBB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-11-2015, 12:15 PM   #2
grtrx
Contributing Editor
Herf God
 
grtrx's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Naperville IL
Posts: 44,579
big loss for the cigar world
__________________
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Sir Winston Churchill

"A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption." - Guy de Maupassant
grtrx is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-11-2015, 12:52 PM   #3
Briandg
CW Squirrel Wrangler
Herf God
 
Briandg's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: southwest Missouri
Posts: 35,518
I am deeply saddened by his loss, He was, from what I know, a great person as well as a great tobacco man. He and frank created one of the greatest tobacco legacies ever. One of the greatest cigar companies ever. An awesome superpower of the tobacco industry.


If I may go into a little editorial comment, the hypocrisy of orlando's comments is more than just ironic, it's utterly sinful. His record on his brother is public knowledge. From the time that Estelo left the business that he shared with orlando, orlando has been very clear about his feelings, and his resentment and anger towards estelo.

The clearest example was when he sued to have the Estelo anniversary cigars removed from sale and destroyed, because the word "padron" (estelo's legally owned surname) was placed in small print on the humidor that the cigars were sold in.

The estelo cigars were awesome, btw.

Commentary by lew rothman on the suit.
Quote:
Estelo Padron is one of the greatest cigar makers of all time, and there's no one any better at working tobacco leaf on the planet.

I know that many CF BB'ers are antagonistic toward General because of a series of inflammatory posts put on this board a year or two ago, but don't mis-place your hostility toward General when it comes to this issue - it is separate and apart.

It's a case where one brother (Orlando) and his family have achieved a great deal of success in the past 6 or 7 years... a success beyond anyone's wildest dreams before the cigar boom years... and now are being petty enough to sue over the use of Estelo's name being featured on a box of Hoyo de Monterrey that celebrates Estelo's 75th birthday.

This box, by the way, could never be confused with a box of Padron brand cigars in a million years.

Estelo has made 10 times as many cigars as his brother over the years, run bigger factories, and produced some of the best respected brands in the industry: Hoyo, Punch, Rey del Mundo, Excalibur, Bolivar, etc., etc. His two factories in Honduras are cleaner than most hospitals, his workers love and respect him.

I love and respect him.

Sometimes people have to decide who's right and who's wrong, and then stand by their convictions regardless of the consequences.It's a matter of having character, morals, and conviction.

These decisions can be damaging to a person's career, their business, their reputation, etc., but a line has to be drawn where you weigh your personal values against some personal or monetary loss.

Therefore, it will be a cold day in hell before JR will ever buy another Padron cigar from these people again.

We do business honorably with honorable people.... and honorable people don't sue their own brother for sticking the name he was given at birth on a box of cigars once every 75 years.

This is without a doubt the lowest thing I have seen in all my years in the business.
I hope that this can be observed without this degenerating into a JR hate thread. Estelo padron was estelo padron for 87 years and he had worked in the industry for 75 years, and what's more important, the word padron is older and wider than what orlando of padron cigars could lay claim to. Padron means, roughly, "big boss and mentor," as "patron."
Briandg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-11-2015, 01:09 PM   #4
grtrx
Contributing Editor
Herf God
 
grtrx's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Naperville IL
Posts: 44,579
people change brian, people say stuff when money is involved, people regret what they said when someone dies
__________________
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Sir Winston Churchill

"A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption." - Guy de Maupassant
grtrx is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-11-2015, 01:21 PM   #5
TommyBB
Editor-in-Chief
Herf God
 
TommyBB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 1998
Location: Metairie, LA
Posts: 86,603
Quote:
Originally Posted by grtrx View Post
people change brian, people say stuff when money is involved, people regret what they said when someone dies
Agreed.
__________________

+In Memory of E.Guevara(Cubano67)W.Orlando(Shadow) A.Morris (Knife) D.Odom (dodom) D.Revermann (dgr) S.Bouchard (sb1396) M.Cole (Matt76) S.Faccenda (TOJE) R.Smith(IBMer) V.Vandermeer (van55)M.Davis(boxdoctor)S.Singer(bassman)K.Doetze l (drillrk1)D.Hart(garme1962)J.Coleman(John C 81)T.Gossett(Dartplayer1)J.Bolt (jb)E.J.Ferralles(CaballoPinto)M.Cataldo(FVFanMC)K Payne(SanchoPanza)F.Seltzer(Mowee)+LB+Connor Olson+Micah Kercheval+Maggie Bonefas+Karen


TommyBB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-11-2015, 01:22 PM   #6
Briandg
CW Squirrel Wrangler
Herf God
 
Briandg's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: southwest Missouri
Posts: 35,518
You are right. I hope that is the case. Estelo and frank were two of my cigar heroes. Ernesto carillo, John oliva, nat sherman and family, manolo quesada, many, many others, all of them built dynasties that lasted half a century and more, carlos fuente, and EVEN ORLANDO PADRON belongs in my list of tobacco industry greats. I can't argue against the talents and success of any of these people. My comments above relate only to personal issues.

As I said before, the 75th anni toros in whatever wrapper I bought were awesome. They are still being sold at JR for only a few dollars each in ten packs. Hoyo fans need to try them.
Briandg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-11-2015, 04:54 PM   #7
BigO
Publisher/Owner
El Chefé
BBQ Guru
Herf God
 
BigO's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Atlanta.
Posts: 55,718
If he who I remember him to be, he was a master of double maduros. for Villazon back in the day.
__________________
Every time you think you've become too cynical, the world finds a way to teach you that the real problem is that you haven't become cynical enough

Free speech is free speech is free speech. There is no qualifier.

If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention.

Never attribute malice to that what can be explained as stupidity.

Unborn lives matter too.

BigO is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-11-2015, 05:23 PM   #8
Briandg
CW Squirrel Wrangler
Herf God
 
Briandg's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: southwest Missouri
Posts: 35,518
That's right. He and frank were the key workers.

There were a lot of things that Frank and he did for the community, as well. IIRC, frank actually helped to put together a bank so that cofradia had a bank. When he went there and started the factory, it was pretty much a few buildings and a bunch of mud huts. The 40 years he was there with villazon it became a real city. Census details are hard to find. Best I can find are that it was less than 1k at the turn of the 20th century. in 1983 it was about 4k. At this time, it's about 20k. If I find more accurate info I will post it.
Briandg is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Tags
Estelo Padrón, HATSA, Obituaries, Tabaqueros, Villazon, Villazon Cofraida
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Estelo 75th contest knife Cigar Talk 37 12-06-2005 08:44 AM
Hoyo Estelo 75th Anniversary Maduro mecreature Cigar Reviews 14 12-02-2005 01:05 AM
Estelo Padron 75th Commemorative Selection MetsFan Cigar Talk 7 05-06-2002 06:02 AM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 01:13 AM.