Metro Cigar News Spring 1998: King Richard Cigars

King Richard Cigars
Smoking At The Round Table
America! What a wonderful country. If you can't find what you want, make your own.

King Richard cigars is a perfect example of that entrepreneurship found in increasing numbers in the United States today; especially with the demand for quality cigars flying higher and higher each year.

King Richard was founded just two years ago by Richard Deer, an Indianapolis native who now calls Miami home.

"I enjoy cigars and decided that I wanted my own brand; a brand where I could direct the quality and manufacture."

Deer first went into negotiations to establish a company, but that never came to pass. He continued his search for what he considered to be just the right individual and found it in Arnaldo Laureno, a man whose family history had two centuries of cigar making to call upon.

The two men went about setting up shop, building a factory in Miami and hiring some of the best Cuban rollers to put their product together.

The business began to grow rapidly and King Richard now stocks some 400,000 cigars in its giant humidor.

While Richard Deer considers price as well as taste, the two most important items in judging a cigar, he doesn't believe that one should compromise the other.

"We pay our rollers a living wage while the Dominicans earn substandard wages. That lowers both price and quality of the product you are producing. A good roller can do about 1,000 cigars a week," he said.

Deer is of the opinion that the Dominican manufacturers have created a price war by "dumping " inexpensive cigars on the market.

Richard Deer

"All of our rollers are from Little Havana, mostly Cubans, and have generations of history in this business." Deer said.

He quickly adds that all of his rollers are legal immigrants.

King Richard Cigars maintains strict quality control and constantly inspects both wrapper and filler. The company is ever vigilant in watching the weather because that is what dictates the price of the product.

But the bottom line is still the human element.

"If you don't have good rollers the cigar will come apart," he continues. "You've got to be careful because many cigars are machine rolled even though they are advertised as hand made."

Although the popularity of cigars has exploded in recent years and many companies are not only growing rapidly, but selling their product world-wide, Richard Deer has no ambition beyond the borders of the United State.

There are several new products in the wings, but Deer is mum on that subject because "I don't want to tip off the competition."

One competitor he doesn't mind talking about is the Cuban Cohiba, probably the best known brand in the world and one he feels got a raw deal from the U.S. government. Although Cubans have been banned from the United States, they remain the favorite item of contraband, especially for cigar smokers coming back from the Caribbean or Mexico.

U.S. courts have held that because of the relationship between Cuba and the United States, the Cubans are not entitled to trade mark protection of the Cohiba name. As a result, an American manufacturer has been producing cigars under the Cohiba banner.

"That isn't right," he says.

Deer's own personal favorite cigars are the torpedo and Royal Stud.

This King Richard won't have pull swords out of a stone to make it in the rampaging cigar marketplace.