PERSON: Rocky Patel

Rocky Patel Cigars

Founder and President

It was the mid-1990s when the premium cigar market was drastically changing. Rocky Patel lived and worked in Los Angeles as an entertainment and product liability lawyer. Through a friend, Rocky was introduced to cigars and was instantly fascinated by them. He then became one of the original founding members of the Grand Havana Club in Los Angeles. While dabbling in various investment ventures, Rocky was approached with a business plan to manufacture cigars. It was still the early days of the cigar boom and Patel was apprehensive. However, after sending a good portion of money to Honduras, the finished product flourished on the market. While his friends and colleagues were saying, “Don’t be foolish, you’ll never make it in the cigar industry,” Rocky had already completed the first step of his journey. In 1996 at the RTDA in Cincinnati, Ohio, Indian Tabac Cigar Co. had arrived. People flocked to the booth in droves to purchase hundreds of these new, brightly packaged sticks. Rocky felt that it was up to the young companies to come into the marketplace with fresh ideas, bold packaging and fuller cigars. With his eye-popping packaging, Patel has gone against the grain. This is a strategy that he has strived for and has certainly paid off. While on the search for perfection, not a single moment goes by that Rocky is not thinking about cigars. From packaging, marketing, improving blends and every other facet of creating the finished product, Rocky is always formulating fresh ideas and new techniques. It is important for Patel to have a product that can sell itself. However, waiting around the office for phone orders is suicide. This is why Rocky takes to the road as often as he does. Traveling also gives him the time to really contemplate his new ideas and concepts before implementing them. Often heralded as the hardest working man in the business, Rocky Patel is married to his arduous schedule. He rarely sees his home and headquarters in Naples, Florida. Yearly, he logs more than 300 days on the road and over 150,000 miles. He has once been in 600 cities within 750 days! However, the time on the road is worth it, considering, that in every town, Rocky wins over new customers and introduces more and more people to the Rocky Patel brand. This practice is an extension of Patel’s plan to get his cigars in the hands of as many people possible. In the ‘mom and pop’ world of tobacconists, it is important for Rocky to share his enthusiasm for his stellar product. That enthusiasm is, often times, contagious and it shows in the faces and attitudes of consumers worldwide.

— rockypatel.com