about mardo cigars

The world is changing quickly and seismically for small businesses, including specialty retailers like Mardo Cigars. For three decades, the company’s namesake, Mardo Abajian, ran a storefront cigar business in Southern California.

When retirement led Mardo and his wife, Ann, to Florida around the turn of the last decade, rapid changes in the regulatory and business climate were already putting immense pressure on the business. The company had to change with the times.

When Mardo passed away in mid-2015, the mantle for carrying on — and evolving — the cigar business fell to his son, Gerard. Gerard quickly launched a new direction for the company, named in Mardo’s memory, and built a strategy that includes a physical storefront in Sarasota, Florida, in addition to a national e-commerce push.