Oliva Cigars has officially opened the doors of its Nicaraguan Tabolisa 1 facility in Estelí. The occasion marks the end of a three-year project, which began in November 2016 with the commencement of construction on the new facility, in Estelí Nicaragua. In 2017 they finished the box factory, end of last year Tabolisa 2 and now the main factory Tabolisa 1. The project was designed to increase efficiency and capacity for the production of Oliva Cigars.
From 2020, the Tabolisa 1 (Tabolisa uno) facility will increase its cigar production capacity significantly, but there are also expansions for employee health facilities, cigar storage, packaging, freezing and ageing rooms. The new building increases the capacity of the leaf curing and fermentation processing area from 50 pilones of tobacco to 100. Phase one also included increasing the numbers of leaf pre-selection stage, from 30 to 80 employees; expanding the packaging area; increasing the finished product cool storage warehouse capacity from two 40ft containers to eight; the incorporation of new freezers; more space in the cigar ageing room; increasing the size of the packaging warehouse from 400sqft to 6,800sqft and the provision of a new 500KW generator that brings the facility to full capacity. This first phase was completed by December 2018, since when the focus has been on renovations to the existing site building.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, J. Cortès owner Fred Vandemarliere said: “The Oliva family offered our family a real gem by selling Oliva Cigars to us. Without them, we would never be where we are now. But to let a diamond shine, you need to work it. We try to do this with care… and the opening of Tabolisa Uno is a clear example of this promise. Cory, Fidel and their team did a fantastic job in making sure we got this facility to the level we want to have it. We want to make good cigars with love… It seems easy to say, but we proof here that we thought about all three words in this sentence:
To celebrate this opening, Oliva will produce a limited edition of the 5.000 first Oliva Serie V Double Robusto’s. They are all individually numbered and packed in a box having the same design as the new factory.
