November 2017 – Ventura Cigar Company (VCC) welcomes Michael Giannini to its Marketing Team, where he will assume the role of Creative Director at Ventura Cigars. With a keen eye for design and market insight, Giannini will lead the brand vision for proprietary VCC products and serve as the Brand Ambassador at cigar events worldwide. He joins the VCC team from La Gloria Cubana, where he most recently was the Director of Innovations and Creative Director for their General Cigar division.
Ventura Cigars is bringing the Third Chapter of it's Archetype Series to IPCPR 2019. This Chapter will feature two blends: Sacred Scales and Dawn of Destiny. Archetype Chapter 3 is a collaboration with E.P. Carrillo and rolled at his factory La Alianza in the Dominican Republic. Carrillo and Ventura Cigar General Manager Michael Giannini have been friends for 20 years and have collaborated before.
Quality Importers Trading Company has hired Michael Giannini to their senior management team for a new position, Chief of Customer Engagement. In his new role he will be responsible for the Sales, Marketing, and Messaging initiatives of the company. Giannini has been in the premium cigar business since the early 1980s. While working on a Master’s Degree in Psychology, teaching and cooking professionally on the weekends, his true passion was in the premium cigar business. To pursue this passion, he began working at a local Philadelphia cigar shop as a store manager, and then became co-owner of an independent manufacturer’s representation firm. He left those roles to become the National Sales Manager for Ernesto Perez-Carrillo’s El Credito Cigar Company – while continuing to work on his culinary and fashion skills when time permitted. After the acquisition of El Credito by Swedish Match, the El Credito portfolio merged into General Cigar, where he became Director of Marketing for the La Gloria Cubana brand.
Quality Importers Trading Co launched a new cutter at the PCA trade show earlier this month. The Xikar Revolution is a new kind of rotary action cigar cutter that features synchronized stainless steel blades and power-assisted cutting action.
Giannini had been with General for 17 years. In March, 2012, he was promoted to his role as creative director, which also carried the title of director of innovations. He was responsible for coming up with non-traditional cigar releases, and started the Foundry Cigar Co., a subsidiary of General dedicated to unorthodox cigars, including the signature Foundry brand. It featured cigars made from blends of tobacco he wouldn't reveal, packed in odd-shaped boxes, one of which came together in a shape reminiscent of a bundle of TNT.
General Cigar introduced a ton of new things at the show this year, and we are pretty excited about some of them.
Island Lifestyle Importers have announced their exclusive agreement with Ventura Cigar Company for marketing and distribution. This new agreement will officially launch at the 2018 IPCPR trade show in Las Vegas. Ventura will take on national marketing and distribution of the Tommy Bahama brands Island Lifestyle Aged Reserve cigars.
Brian Massey has joined the marketing team at Ventura Cigar Company (VCC). Brian will report directly to Michael Giannini who recently took on the General Manager role at VCC. Archetype, PSyKo Seven, and Case study are the popular core brands that make up much of the portfolio at VCC. Brian will be working to drive sales and marketing efforts with these brands.
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·"A cigar I hated to lose in the process of smoking. Great notes of cherry, earth, leather, cocoa, and oak make this a excellent cigar. Great ash that hung on to the cigar for 30 minutes or better. Five or more of these cigar would round out your humidor perfectly." -Sean F. (fullermaine)
Michael Gianinni joined Ventura Cigar Company back in November 2017 as Creative Director. Now he has been promoted to General Manager. He will keep his current duties as Creative Director, continuing to be the driving force for the companies creative direction. In his new role, Michael Giannini will drive business strategies and goals for the Ventura Cigar Company.