Laudisi Enterprises has acquired Caldwell Cigar Company as well as Lost & Found Cigars. Laudisi Enterprises is best known for its pipe brands, such as Cornell & Diehl and Peterson, and the online outlet Smokingpipes.com. The move now positions Laudisi as a seller of premium cigar brands.
“We have been more than fortunate to have had an amazing first 10 years,” says Caldwell Cigar Company founder Robert Caldwell in a press release. “As we enter our next decade, we want to build on our rookie season with new partners that can help us continue to build and grow on a stronger foundation. Laudisi has everything that we need to guarantee our continued success.”
Best known for its efforts in premium pipes and pipe tobacco, Laudisi Enterprises has always been interested in premium cigars and has expanded its cigar inventory and sales over the last five years. “Laudisi has been involved in the cigar world for almost 20 years,” says Sykes Wilford, CEO of Laudisi Enterprises. “While we’ve steadily expanded our cigar offerings over the past decade, we hadn’t sought a step like this into the cigar business. The more we grew to know Robert Caldwell and Juan Jaramillo, however, the more it became clear that this was a perfect fit for both parties.”
Caldwell Cigar Company was founded in 2013, several months after Caldwell split with Camacho Cigars. While Caldwell and Jaramillo have been partners in Caldwell Cigar Company, Lost & Found has been a separate venture. Like Caldwell Cigar Company, Lost & Found began in 2013. The company was started as a partnership between Caldwell, Tony Bellatto, and Jaclyn Sears. Lost & Found originally had a business model of finding and repackaging old cigars. In 2022, the company moved to focus on small-batch products.
“I’ve personally been a huge fan of Robert Caldwell’s cigars since I walked into Liberty Tobacco in San Diego, California, as a consumer about 10 years ago, and saw The King is Dead and Long Live the King on the shelf,” says Shane Ireland, Vice President for Retail at Laudisi Enterprises. “When it became my responsibility to decide which cigars Smokingpipes and other Laudisi retail properties would carry, Caldwell was among the first brands I brought on. Naturally, we developed a very close partnership with Robert and his crew, and that relationship has continued to thrive over the years.”
Robert and fellow Caldwell co-founder Juan Jaramillo will join the senior management team at Laudisi Enterprises, leading the new Caldwell Cigar division. “I will continue to do what I did with Caldwell, but better,” says Robert. “I will be able to focus on what I do best and what I most enjoy — branding, marketing, and product development. Juan will continue to liaise with our factory partners and handle logistics.”
“During the first discussions with Robert about the deal, the synergies between our two companies were immediately obvious,” says Shane Ireland. “Ultimately we all agreed that the exciting and most important bit was to allow Robert to focus on what he does best — creating cigars and brands that captivate smokers all over the world. Everyone on both sides of this deal places a huge emphasis on Robert and Juan joining Laudisi as the key to Caldwell’s and Lost & Found’s future success. It ensures continuity for all retail partners, the same outstanding quality that consumers expect, and it frees Robert and his team up to focus on innovation and shaking things up in a way that only Robert Caldwell can.”
“I’m very excited that Robert Caldwell and Juan Jaramillo will be joining Laudisi,” says Sykes. “I don’t pretend to be a cigar expert; I’ve spent the last 24 years utterly immersed in pipes and pipe tobacco. But Robert is. And I’m thrilled that he and Juan will apply their passion and expertise to leading our new Caldwell Cigar division. I’m also very excited about what Laudisi Distribution Group (LDG) can bring to the table for customers of both LDG and Caldwell, offering two exceptional cigar brands — Caldwell and Lost & Found — alongside its existing offerings of pipes and pipe tobaccos.”
