Cigars International Reviews

3.4

51% would recommend to a friend

(84 total reviews)

Niels Frederiksen and Sarah Santos

34% approve of CEO

53% positive business outlook

Cigars International has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 84 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Cigars International employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

84 reviews
3.0
23 Oct 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Learned advance Photoshop skills from talented photographers to use for my next job, learned how to check color at press checks, designed 140 page catalogs solo (I really mean solo, no help from the art director or other designers) on extremely tight deadlines. Without the some of the management involved, everyone was a great team.

Cons

You were never "allowed" to go home at the end of the work day until ALL of your deadlines were met. If you had to stay until 10:00 five days a week, that was what they expected of you. The design that is done in the Creative Department is tacky, distasteful and not worth any REAL designer's time. You never feel proud of the work you do. It's a requirement for all salary employees to work CIGARfest unpaid for an entire weekend. Comp time was never offered (i.e., a free day off the Monday after the fest). If you're allergic to smoke, don't work here. A lot of people smoke cigars FREQUENTLY.

2.0
21 Aug 2015

Horrible work environment

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some people are nice....that's about all of the pros I have!

Cons

This was literally the worst place I have ever worked. I only spent a few months at this company and those months were horrific. There is such a strange mentality from the "management" team who thinks they are better than all and can treat people like dirt. You are expected to work 50 hours a week (getting paid for 40), not go out at lunch, and put up with foul language and disrespectful employees. I would never, ever tell someone to work here.

2.0
3 June 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

*As mentioned in another review Keith Meir is no longer the CEO. The company is now owned by Scandanavian Tobacco Group and run by Sarah Santos. Coworkers and immediate supervisor were great (everyone above my supervisor not so much.). Discount was great (which they leverage as an excuse to not pay people a decent wage).

Cons

I saw another review refer to working there as 'needlessly frantic' and I can't think of a better way to describe it. Things would change not just day to day but hour by hour. It seemed like they were just banging rocks together hoping it translated to sales. Things would often get tossed at us late in the day by upper management with tight turnaround times. If someone quit or was let go they usually put that work on someone else rather than hire a replacement. By the time I left we had lost several 10+ year employees and from what I've heard that has only increased since.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 84 Reviews

Glassdoor has 86 Cigars International reviews submitted anonymously by Cigars International employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Cigars International is right for you.