Toreo Family Increases Expansion

Inch by inch, foot by foot, a modern cigar company must work to increase international business.

This is no better exemplified than by the Toreo family of cigar brands, founded by Israeli Zafi Barzilay. At this year’s InterTabac show, he is in a bigger booth than last year – “by a few square feet,” he laughs – and his cigars are now being sold in a few more territories, too.

“Little by little, step by step,” he says over a cigar and a glass of rum. “This is the only way to do it.”

Those little steps include new markets in Serbia and cigar outposts in Kenya. And also includes introducing some value cigarillo brands which help produce volume. This, in turn, provides a platform on which the company’s handrolled cigars can then ‘piggy back.’

Those handrolled cigars are currently made by factories including Plascencia and Quesdada and this roster of experts may also expand with future business.