Alec Bradley

Alan Rubin established Alec Bradley in 1996 after selling his family’s Florida hardware concern. He named the company for his sons, Alec and Bradley. Entering the market near the end of the 1990s cigar boom, Rubin arranged for a small Honduran manufacturer to produce his first cigars.

The initial Bogey’s Stogies line, made from 1997 to 1999 for sale through golf pro shops, was unprofitable. By spring 1999, Rubin was about $60,000 in debt. A turning point came in 2000, when cigar professional Ralph Montero joined the company. Alec Bradley mailed approximately 500 sample packs of its new Occidental Reserve line to tobacco retailers and gained about 300 customers.

The company followed Occidental Reserve with Trilogy, a triangular pressed cigar, and Maxx, introduced in 2005 with a stout 50 ring gauge. A broader breakthrough arrived in 2007 with Tempus, a fuller-bodied departure from the company’s earlier mild and medium cigars. Tempus was made at Fabrica de Tabacos Raices Cubana in Danlí, Honduras, using Trojes tobacco from Nicaragua’s Jalapa Valley.

The Alec Bradley Prensado took the 2011 #1 spot in Cigar Aficionado Magazine. Demand contributed to 72 percent growth in one year and production problems that lasted for two years; Rubin said the cigars were back to their intended standard by mid-2014. His sons later joined the business and launched the Alec & Bradley offshoot in 2018 with Blind Faith, followed by Gatekeeper and Kintsugi.