Perfecto Garcia Brothers came into existence in 1905, founded by four members of the Garcia family. They grew Cuban tobacco on their family owned farms and rolled their cigars in Ybor City. They also owned over fifteen cigar shops in Chicago. The Chicago area was their main demographic and most of their marketing and sales were targeted to that area.
Cigar Brands: Perfecto Garcia, La Amita, Perla del Mar
Eventually one brother left the country and two more stayed in town to manage the shops. That left one brother, Perfecto, to oversee the factory in Ybor City.
The Perfecto Garcia brand was among the highest rated cigars at the time. They shared this honor with Bering cigars and Garcia y Vega.
The original wooden factory from 1905 burned to the ground, a victim of a large fire in Ybor City. The brick building in the photos of this article was built in 1914. It has three floors and a basement for a total of 44,000 sq. ft.
Oliva Tobacco Company supplied them with Cuban tobacco which was stored in the basement. The Perfecto Garcia company claimed to make cigars in 65 different sizes. At it’s peak, Perfecto Garcia Brothers employed 1,200 people and the cigars were rolled by hand.
In the 1960’s, Julio Eiroa worked at this factory. Julio would later found the Caribe Imported Cigars company in Miami which bought out Camacho cigars in 1995.
Bonus info from Christian Eiroa: When my father left Cuba and before he joined the Bay of Pigs invasion, he worked at PG. He then bought the company in 1980. I have great memories in that building.
Due to the Cuban Embargo, Perfecto Garcia’s Cuban tobacco inventory dwindled and like many other cigar companies in Ybor, they looked to sell their businesses. Perfecto Garcia was sold to Havano Cigar Corp. Machines were brought in to roll the cigars at an average of 60,000 per day.
Photo Gallery (click images for full view)
Exterior of Perfecto Garcia factory 2010
United States Tobacco, a Greenwich, CT based company, bought Perfecto Garcia from Havano Cigar Corp in 1981 and renamed the company Central American Cigar Co. UST bought Perfecto Garcia for the brand name only. They ceased operations in Ybor City in June of 1982. Company officials cited the decline in cigar sales and the economy as their reasons for closing. They also stated that operations were being consolidated into a modern factory located in Yoe, PA.
In 1999, Arango Cigar Co., of Northbrook, Ill., announced that they were the new importer and sole distributor of Perfecto Garcia premium cigars, now manufactured in Nicaragua and once again, hand made.
Vacant since 1982, the factory was slated at one time to become an apartment building. Now, the factory is for sale. Asking price in 2010 was $2.75 Million.
2020 update: Public records show this property sold for a little over $2.1 million on 2/16/2019. Abandoned FL has interesting shots of the interior of this factory.