Here is the article from CA.
C.A.O. Shifts Maduro Production
Posted: Monday, April 14, 2003
By David Savona
C.A.O. International Inc. has shifted production of its popular C.A.O. L'Anniversaire Maduro brand from Tabacalera Perdomo to C.A.O. Fabrica de Tabacos. The new factory, owned by C.A.O. and the Toraño family, is in Estelí, Nicaragua, the same town where Tabacalera Perdomo is located.
C.A.O. bought part of the Toraño factory on January 19, along with part of another Toraño-owned plant in Honduras. This switch is the first major change from that deal.
"I'm very proud of the advent of our new factories," said Cano A. Ozgener, founder of the Nashville, Tennessee company. "All of our production has improved."
The new C.A.O. Maduro has the same blend as before, with Connecticut-broadleaf wrapper, Ecuadoran binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan filler. The company now uses 1999 vintage wrapper, where before it used wrapper from a different vintage.
The cigars look different. The boxes have been refurbished, bathed in bright red rather than the staid plain cedar of old. The word "L'Anniversaire" still appears on the top of the box, but it has been stricken from the band, replaced with the word "maduro." The "L'Anniversaire" has also been removed from the bands on the company's Cameroon and eXtreme lines, which now read "Cameroon" and "eXtreme." The change was made to help smokers remember the brand names.
"When you have L'Anniversaire on three different bands, there's no brand differentiation," said Tim Ozgener, vice president of the company.
The move is a bit of a surprise. C.A.O. originally said that its investments in the two cigar factories would not affect the production of its cigar brands that are made by Perdomo, which still makes the C.A.O. eXtreme and Cameroon cigars.
This is the third factory change for the C.A.O. L'Anniversaire Maduro. It was created in Costa Rica at Tabacalera Tambor, then owned by Douglas Pueringer. He dropped C.A.O. as a customer in 1999, and the brand was soon recreated by Perdomo in Nicaragua.
"At this time," said Jon Huber, CAO's chief marketing officer, "there are no other moves in the works."
