UK Cigar Scene Magazine September Issue 9 | Page 32

When Samoza was deposed he went to the USA
and took the Joya brand with him. He sold it
on to Altadis and the cigars bearing the Joya de
Nicaragua name were being made in Honduras
using Honduran tobacco. Then in 1997 the name
was bought back by the Nicaraguan company.

the brink of bankruptcy. They sought help from
Dr Martinez who travelled to Spain and
Switzerland in search of finance. Unable to find a
partner he resolved to buy the company himself.
He found a Spanish partner and this heralded a
new era of investment and distribution.

At this time there were three blends and after the
revolution there was a fourth blend because the
tobacco had changed. In the 1990’s there was no
infrastructure in Nicaragua which would allow
wrapper to be grown in Nicaragua.

At this time the company was just a
manufacturing company, it had divested itself
from the tobacco growing business. In the 1990’s
many of the new brands came ba ck. In 1992 the
company started to supply cigars to the US owner
of the Joya de Nicaragua brand and finally in 1997
the brand was brought back by the company from
Altardis. Today the company is unique in that
it has no family name and is 100% Nicaraguan
owned.

In 1990 the revolutionary government lost
power in a free election and the new government
privatised all of the property which had been
nationalised. Because the Nicaraguan factory had
been owned by Samoza the constitution stated
that nothing could be returned to his ownership
so it was decided to return the factory to a
cooperative of 89 workers and kept producing
cigars.
The workers had major issues. In 1990’s there was
very little infrastructure or banking, they were on

In 2013 the company released the limited edition
Cuatro Cinco range made with special aged
tobacco the reverse of the cigar band bears rare
images of the factory and cigar rollers from the pre
revolutionary period. Back then the rollers were
around 16 years old. Today one of them is head of
HR and one head of quality control at the factory.
The factory is known as the University of Tobacco

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The factory has always been known for production
innovation. In the 1960’s Juan Francisco Bermejo
developed the system of bunchers and rollers.
Men bunch the filler and binder before passing
them to a roller to put the binder on. This idea was
that each would specialise and thus produce more
cigars.

and 8 of the 10 heads of production of the other
factories in Esteli have passed through the factory.
We were delighted to be able to bring Derek and
Juan together and to restore a little to the Joya de
Nicaragua history.
To read the first part of this interview follow
this link bit.ly/AugJoya