A New Era Of Oliva
In 2016, shortly before the Trump administration began, there was another regime change taking place as well, only it was in the world of premium cigars. Family-owned Oliva Cigar Co. was acquired by J. Cortès Cigars N.V., a family-owned Belgian company known for producing machine-made, mass-market smokes. Its young CEO—named Frederik Vandermarliere—merely 34 years old at the time, vowed to maintain Oliva’s quality while strengthening the brand. Now, seven years later, it seems he’s done all he can to keep that promise.
A line of palm trees on the Pan-American highway move in the wind. It’s a clear day in Estelí, Nicaragua, and you can see mountains in almost every direction, but it’s unusually breezy this January afternoon. Another gust of wind rustles the palm fronds, only this time, the breeze brings with it Vandermarliere, the owner of Oliva Cigar Co. Surrounded by flowers and meticulous landscaping, he ascends the garden-like steps of a massive, 180,000 square foot tobacco processing facility quaintly called Las Mesitas—the little mesas—and holds up a cigar.
“You see that?” he asks. The cigar has the cartoonish look of a caveman’s club with a bulbous top and severely tapered end. Then, he turns it upside down. “Look. It’s like the trunk of a palm tree,” he suggests, holding it in the air against the view of a Royal Palm. You might know this cigar as the Oliva Serie V 135th Anniversary (91 points), a limited-edition figurado that came out last year. “That was my inspiration. This cigar is my contribution to Oliva,” the 41-year-old says with a slight chuckle and unmistakable Belgian accent.
Vandermarliere is being modest. While his management style is to let the experts do their job and not micromanage every facet of the business, Fred, as he’s now known throughout Estelí, has led Oliva into exactly the massive, yet controlled, expansion he promised back in 2016. Last year, Oliva produced 40 million cigars by hand, roughly double what production was at the time of acquisition. The company is on course to make the same number of cigars in 2023.
“We did not come from this world, not this side of the world,” Vandermarliere says. He’s dressed in cargo shorts and sneakers, and wears a leather Stetson hat over his longish hair, which evokes some hunting expedition in the Belgian Congo. He has just arrived from Belgium but the long flight and three-hour drive from the Managua airport has not tempered his pleasant mood or high energy levels. In an hour or so, he’ll be leading the ribbon-cutting ceremony for this building, which looks more like a resort than an industrial complex.
“I was really impressed with the passion of people in the tobacco industry,” Vandermarliere says of his work force. “Coming from Europe it’s something that we really miss these days.”
Fred’s company, previously known as J. Cortés Cigars N.V., was started by his grandfather in Belgium more than a century ago. J. Cortés made its name with machine-made cigars and tobacco products, mostly for Europe. Vandermarliere joined the family business in 2005. After years of seeking a handmade product to complete the portfolio, his quest came to an end when J. Cortés (now known as Vandermarliere Family of Cigars) acquired Oliva. It was a bit of a shock to the industry and concerns were raised about the future of such a beloved product. Would Oliva Cigars—whose Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado had just been named Cigar of the Year for 2014—be changed? Would quality slip? These are questions that Vandermarliere does not take lightly.
He moves from the steps and walks across the terra cotta tiles of a picturesque hacienda, joined by his father, Guido, who has the same affable demeanor. This facility, which handles the sorting, aging and fermentation of tobacco, opened in January and is far prettier than it has to be. The beautification of Estelí is one of the ways that Vandermarliere pays respect to Oliva and the handmade industry overall.
“You take over a restaurant and you will try to not change the cook. The team with Fidel and Ernesto is fantastic,” he says, referring to Fidel Valdez and Ernesto Milanes, two key employees who oversee Oliva’s operations, both in the fields and factories. “My job is more to take care of the values, the brand equity and to take care that the people who do their work in a good way are supported. I’m down here two times a year for a week. About four to six times to the U.S. This is of course insufficient to fully understand the business.”
Despite his easygoing air, the tensions and challenges that can arise between the need for growth and the preservation of quality weigh heavily on Vandermarliere’s mind. On the one hand, company growth is essential. On the other, he’s been quite vocal about respecting the Oliva history and maintaining the quality that the brand has become known for. A bit of skepticism in response to Vandermarliere’s assurances would be perfectly understandable. In the wake of corporate takeovers, it’s common to hear empty promises, especially after a small business has been acquired. But Vandermarliere has actually stayed true to his word, and the proof is in the ratings. Scores for the Oliva Serie V and Serie V Melanio—flagship brands for the company—consistently land in the 90s, just as they had when they were introduced in 2007 and 2013. The Melanio Figurado recently scored 95 points in a blind tasting, Classic status by this magazine’s 100-point scale and just one example of Oliva’s continuing commitment to quality.
“We always understood tobacco and always had an inventory of over two years,” Vandermarliere says. “Having inventory, giving time to your products, the problems that come with cigars, those are things we knew. But the rest, we did not know.”
To fully appreciate where Vandermarliere has taken Oliva, one must look at the company’s generational history and timeline. It goes back to the 1800s when grand patriarch Melanio Oliva grew tobacco in Cuba. His son, Facundo, continued the profession and passed it on to his son, Gilberto, who became not only a tobacco grower, but a broker as well. By 1964, Gilberto left Cuba, eventually settling in Nicaragua, a country that he believed could best produce tobacco that resembled Cuban leaf. In 1995, Gilberto turned to cigar manufacturing, establishing Oliva Cigar Co. within Nestor Plasencia’s factory in Honduras while still maintaining a separate tobacco-growing business. The cigars were simply called Gilberto Oliva and it wasn’t until 1996 that he had enough resources to start his own cigar factory in Nicaragua.
Oliva ran the modest operation with his four children: Gilberto Jr., who was head of leaf-growing and blending; Carlos, who ran the factories; Jeannie, who was in charge of operations in Miami and José, who became vice president and the face of the company.
“My father helped us set up the factory, taught us how to run it and supplied us with tobacco from his growing operation,” recalls José Oliva. Though no longer officially part of Oliva Cigar Co., he still serves an advisory role, and has an office at company headquarters in Miami Lakes, Florida. “While we were always separate companies as far as ownership, the two companies worked and grew together throughout the decades.”
As the United States was developing a taste for Nicaraguan tobacco during the late 1990s, Oliva was able to supply the market by using its own inventories of aged tobacco that Gilberto had accumulated. Brands like Oliva “O” Classic had established a following for reliability and value. The year 2007 turned out to be a major turning point for Oliva when it introduced the Serie V, a stronger, more complex blend that stood above anything Oliva had ever created. It was made primarily of full-bodied Nicaraguan tobacco and became a critically acclaimed, breakthrough brand.
On top of the Serie V’s obvious quality, there was tremendous value that can’t be overstated. Sizes like the Serie V Churchill Extra (95 points), Lancero (94 points) and Double Robusto (91 points) performed like far more expensive cigars in our blind tastings. Serie Vs could have cost twice as much, especially in the current market where $20-, $30- and $40-cigars are becoming common. An instant critical and commercial success, Serie V catapulted Oliva into a new echelon, making the company a major player in the handmade arena. The cigar world had a new rock star.
From 2007 to 2010, Oliva saw rapid growth. The Serie V was on “eternal back order” and became the company’s flagship. Gilberto’s tobacco-growing operations in Nicaragua continued to provide most of the leaf required to sustain the brand and the company was producing 13 million cigars per year. Then, in 2014, Oliva gained the industry’s highest accolade, Cigar Aficionado’s Cigar of the Year, with its Serie V Melanio, a cigar named after the family’s grand patriarch. Two years later, Oliva was sold.
The companies met when J. Cortès began making a machine-made cigar for Oliva, marketed primarily in Europe. When news of the acquisition broke, few even knew that Oliva was up for sale. Some were concerned, as takeovers can often harm the character of a brand. One person who didn’t appear to be worried was José. The company was passing from the hands of one family to another family, and the way he saw it, their values aligned. To help with the transition and to preserve the Oliva ethos, José initially stayed on as chief operating officer. He’s still involved with the business today.
José and Fred visited the Cigar Aficionado offices one recent afternoon. Terms of the deal were never disclosed (and inquiries about the sum are simply dismissed with a laugh) but no matter the amount, it can be emotionally difficult to walk away from a family business. When asked if he ever feels any seller’s remorse, José responds: “Decisions as monumental as selling one’s life’s work always cause reflection. There have been many times when I have reflected on the decision. In the end, I always arrive at the same conclusion. I remain an active part of the company and the people that comprise it. I have been able to see the company and the name grow and expand around the world in a positive way. And most importantly, we chose the right custodian for our legacy. Frederik Vandermarliere has been a positive force in so many ways. The outcome has been overwhelmingly positive for all involved.”
This sentiment is more than just lip-service to the legacy. Since the acquisition, Oliva has invested a tremendous amount in the company’s infrastructure, buying more tobacco fields throughout Nicaragua, expanding its rolling capacity and constructing new leaf processing facilities. Though focused on responsible expansion, Vandermarliere isn’t a micromanager, but rather sees an advantage to giving employees a sense of ownership. Being an ocean away in Belgium has forced Vandermarliere to put together a team that doesn’t need constant supervision. “Like my dad says, delegate, but still maintain control,” he offers. “The best control is for me to walk around the factory and ask how the guys are doing. They have to be open with me too. It allows people to work in this environment. I believe in the value of people. If you have good people, they can do it better than you can do it. If you’re in Belgium and you have operations in Nicaragua and the U.S., then this is essential.” Since the sale, the Oliva family has not completely walked away, and José is not the only family member still involved. Jeannie is no longer associated with the business, but Gilberto Jr. grows tobacco in Ecuador, providing wrapper for some of Oliva’s cigars. Carlos constructs the boxes. Gilberto also has input on any new blends the company might be working on, although Oliva as a company isn’t obsessed with novelty. Unlike most companies operating in the modern-day cigar business, new releases aren’t a priority at Oliva, and they never were. Rather, the company focuses its energy on efficiency and consistency rather than making new products just for the sake of putting out something new.
“Fred has strictly maintained our culture of family, commitment and quality,” assures José. “After almost seven years, all key personnel remain at their posts and many more have been promoted within the company. Our aging tobacco stocks have only grown and quality remains the most important consideration in all discussions. This is what separates the family cigarmakers from the corporate producers and Fred has ensured we remain a family company.”
